The Rising Wind
by Jayfeattheris Awesome
Summary: Uncle Thorin has told Fili and Kili that dragons are evil. That they must be killed. But one day, both of them go against everything their uncle has taught them in the hopes of a new ally. But is spareing a newborn dragonet they find in the wood the right thing to do? And when the time comes, will she spare them as well? Or are all dragons as Thorin says they are? * T for battle *
1. Chapter 1

**OH MY GOSH! THE PLAGUE IS OVER!**

 **I.**

 **CAN.**

 _ **POST!**_

 **YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! It has been, SO long since I've posted a new fic! This new profile doesn't have the "Profile Death Glitch" on it! I can post new fics! And I'm going to be posting empty fic slots, with explanations regarding the PDG(Profile Death Glitch), on my profile, as insurance in case this glitch ever happens again. if it does, then at least I'll have some pre-created extra fic slots to post a few new fics in before I go crazy. I'll do the same to the slots on my old profile where these fics used to be.**

 **If you want any information on the PDG, or what the heck is going on here, visit my old profile and skip to the last chapter or two; It should provide some more clarifying information.**

 _The summer night air was crisp with the scent of lush leaves fresh from spring, and apples hung off of a tree nearby the small gray boulder with a large, white stone leaning up against it. A large pond with water gurgling into it from a small river had kept the grass in the small clearing lush and green, with small white flowers scattered across the area._

 _Suddenly, faint tapping noises came from the white stone, and it began to crack. The stone looked old, and was covered in dust, dirt, and small bits of plant growth that had made its way up the stone over time. A small bit of the stone cracked and chipped off, and a small white head poked out and cried out feebly._

 _The small creature struggled for a little bit, but then the weak shell collapsed, and the newborn dragonet tumbled onto the grass, covered in slime, and unmoving. Several hours past, and the only sign that the hatchling was alive was the faint rise and fall of her stomach as she breathed, which was getting visibly weaker._

 _A figure entered the clearing, seeming out of place among the greenery of the forest. She was an elf with pale hair, and a pure white gown that dragged along the ground. She made her way over to the boulder, and crouched down beside the white dragonet._

 _"You are pure. You are something new in a world that is on the hinge of falling into darkness that is only beginning to gather. For every dark thing, there is a light, even though some are blind to it. All is pure once, but then tainted, though not all pure things need fade away." She murmured placing a hand on the hatchling's neck. The baby dragon let out a peaceful sigh, and shifted into a position that made her look as it she was sleeping._

 _"You will be great, though the light will be hard for some to find." The elf said, smiling._

 _The elf got up, and made her way back to the trees, turning to glance over her shoulder at the dragonet that now was sleeping peacefully; it's breathing strong, and its legs twitching happily as it dreamed. She smiled, and disappeared into the woods._

 _A whisper seemed to follow through the breeze as she left. "The wind will come… One who comes from mountain stone, will help the king reclaim his throne…Made guardian of Durin's folk, will run across the mountain slope… The Wind Is Comeing…"_

 **Please review; reposting this fic means that it no longer has any noticeable publicity or popularity. I would really appreciate it if the review count could be reguvinated. Oh, and to those of you who actually follow Amberstar of Thunderclan's _Siblings_ , it will be posted on her profile shortly.**


	2. A Meeting In The Woods

**Now, since a newborn probably doesn't know what a whole lot of things are, I have decided that until the dragonet knows the name of something, she'll be pretty much clueless about what it is. So here is what I am going to call, the Dragonet Translation** ( **These translations apply for all the chapters were the dragonet is a hatchling** ):

 **Fuzzy head stuff = hair**

 **Floppy skin = bag or satchel**

 **Sharp twig = knife**

 **Sharprock stick = arrow**

 **Hollow boulder = cooking pot and/or bowl**

 **Rabbit liquid = rabbit soup**

 **Ro: That's the same thing you put on my old post of this fic. did you just get a profile so you could insult us, the pioneers of non-canon? How about you go get a life, or at least read my policy on insults.**

Kili trudged along after his brother, yawning. They were on the move again for their return journey from a meeting between their uncle Thorin and his cousin, Dain, in the Iron Hills. Thorin had been traveling with them for most of the way, but eventually they had parted ways, him for the Blue Mountains and them for Bree; they'd gotten restless on the boring political journey, and there were always contracts for caravan protection to be found at the _Prancing Pony_.

The sun wasn't up yet, but the sky was a periwinkle color, and he could see bright orange in half the sky when the trees opened up into a clearing. Fili had insisted they get up before the sunrise in the hopes that they could catch breakfast while it was still sleeping.

Personally, he would rather still be asleep. Getting up early meant getting hungry earlier than if you had woken up late. The meeting with Dain had been about discussing possible settlement territory near the Misty Mountains, and had ended with an agreement to send search parties to test the waters, at least in the places that had been deemed accessible. Afterwards, Thorin had taken Fili and Kili aside, and talked to them about the usual; about their inheritance, their ancestry, and all wrapped up with a horrifically long talk about their duties as heirs of Durin. It was fine and all, but sometimes Thorin could get a little obsessed.

They already heard enough about that at home. It was one of the reasons they had taken to guarding caravans.

Suddenly, Fili stopped, and he almost crashed into him. "Do you hear that?" he asked.

Kili listened, and sure enough, there was the sound of water running through a stream. "Water! Water means food!" Fili exclaimed excitedly, dashing off in the direction of the sound a quietly as he could with all their supplies on his back. Kili rolled his eyes. _Not if you keep that up!_

Kili raced after him, and they came to a stop near the edge of a green clearing with a pond near the end of it. There was no food in sight; not even a berry bush. They cast each other mournful looks, Kili putting on an exaggerated pout.

"Well, the water looks safe to drink; we could have some of that, at least. And we've still got plenty of _cram_ , I guess..." Fili pointed out dejectedly.

"Ewch, no _cram_!" he exclaimed, scrunching up his face in disgust. "We'll have the last of the salted meat, and I'll live off that for the next month if I have to!"

The water looked safe to drink, so he followed his brother, and they sat by the pond and filled their canteens. The two of them sat there, drinking for a while and eating some dried meat, when a small, pathetic cry went through the air. Stiffening, they both slowly turned around.

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Wind. Wind was the first thing she felt, like a blanket of pure joy passing over her and through her scales. Then she heard something, and it was getting louder as it got closer, thumping on the ground in two sets. Then she heard a strange slurping noise, and other things that sounded as if things were bumping together.

Confused, she pushed up with her front paws, and her weak new legs collapsed, and she mewled in frustration. The noises ceased. Then she heard a new sound, one she was even more confused by. She couldn't tell what it was, but it was similar to the sound that she had just made, as if it had a purpose.

"What is that thing?" was what the noise sounded like. Words! The noise was just like thoughts in her head, only she could hear them out loud, and they were coming from something else.

"I don't know, Kili, but it doesn't look good. We should get out of here." Another voice said.

"Right." The first voice agreed.

Panic shot through her. She didn't know why, but the thought of being left on her own in complete silence terrified her. She hadn't been awake for long, but she liked the sound of voices, and the scent of life. There was the sound of rushed bumping and rustling, and then the same noise she had first heard; the bumping, thumping sound. Panicking, she opened her mouth, and tried to form her thoughts into words, but her mouth wouldn't work correctly, and she didn't know how to speak. Instead, what came out was a pathetic, ragged, loud, short cry that seemed a bit too loud for her to have made it, and it hurt her throat.

The thumping noise stopped, and for a moment she thought that whatever had been there was gone, until the thumping resumed, only slower and softer this time, and it seemed to be coming straight towards her this time.

"Kili." The second voice said in a warning tone.

The thumping stopped right in front of her this time, and she suddenly felt even more afraid than before. What if whatever it was wanted to hurt her? She heard a close rustling sound, and then felt something grab her by the sides, and the ground disappeared from underneath her.

Terrified, she forced her eyes open, and the air stung them. Squinting, she tried to get a better look at the thing that had grabbed her. It was a large creature, and floppy stretches of loose, hard-looking material covered it's body. She looked at it's head. It's face was a pale color, and loose strands of a fuzzy-looking material on it's head fell across it's face.

She mewled, and stretched her head forward to try to sniff the fuzzy stuff, snorting in the creature's face by accident as she did so. It pulled it's head back a little, squinting and blowing a strand of fuzzy stuff out of it's face.

"It doesn't look particularly dangerous, Fili. I think were safe." The creature said, looking over it's shoulder as another creature that looked like him, only with yellowish fuzz on it's head instead of black.

"Kili, it's a _baby dragon_ , for Durin's sake. If there's a child, the mother's not too far behind. We have to get out of here _now_!" the second creature, who apparently was called Fili, urged.

"I don't think so." Kili replied, looking thoughtful. "This dragonet _just_ opened it's eyes. I can tell be the way it's squinting. That means it's way too young to leave it's parents, and I don't see a nest nearby." He looked around, and then seemed to spot something on the ground behind her. "Look! There's a broken egg, right here. I bet you this dragon only just hatched last night!"

"Good for you. Now just drop the thing, and let's go!" Fili urged again impatiently.

"What! Are you crazy, Fili? It's just a newborn; it won't survive an hour out here." Kili exclaimed.

"Why should we care? It's a dragon. And we're dwarves. Dwarves and dragons just don't go together, especially after what happened with Smaug, and _especially_ considering who our uncle is." Fili told him frustratedly. "That thing will grow up, and then it will kill everything in sight."

"Yes, true." Kili agreed." But if we leave it here to die and it survives, it will remember this day forever and be out for dwarf blood for the rest of it's life."

At this, Fili went silent, looking as if he was thinking about whether or not it was worth the risk.

"Then we'll kill it, and then we never speak of it again. "Fili suggested.

"Fine, then." Kili said flatly, walking over to Fili, placing her on the ground, and handing Fili a thick, sharp twig that he pulled out of a hollow-looking floppy skin that was slug around his shoulder. "Kill it." He ordered a challenge in his eyes.

 _Kill? What does "Kill" mean?_ Fili took the sharp twig, looking doubtful, and placed the edge on the back of the base of her neck. It felt sharp and uncomfortable, and she let out a mewl of complaint. Fili flinched as she did so.

"On you go. If you're so tough. Kill the dragonet, and you can tell uncle Thorin _all_ about it when we get home. In fact, why don't you take it's head as a prize, so you can show him you killed an infant of the race he despises. You can walk up to him and say ,'Look at me; I killed a baby dragon'." Kili urged, his arms crossed an eyes narrowed to a hard glare.

Fili looked as if he was trying not to cry from a heavy wound. "Fine." He seemed to hiss, lifting the sharp twig from her neck. "But we take it someplace far away, where nobody can find it. _Especially_ uncle Thorin."

"I'm pretty sure that it's a she, Fili." Kili told him, his earlier scorn seeming to vanish. He picked her up again, and she squeaked in complaint. She liked the company, but she also liked being on the ground. Not up high, were she could fall at any moment, even though Kili seemed to hold her firmly enough that she wouldn't fall.

And she still had no idea what a dragon was, although she was pretty sure that she was a dragon, from the way they had talked about her. And she still didn't know what killing was either, though she was sure it was probably not a good thing by they had talked about it. And what the what was an uncle? Or a she? Or a Thorin( though she knew that a Thorin was also an uncle)?She would definitely like to know what a dwarf, a Smaug, and egg, a Durin, a child, and a parents were. It would be good to know what all of those were.

"There is a valley in the mountains that Thorin told us about during our visit. I was asleep for half of it, but it was something to do with the valley being too hard for supplies carriages to reach if they made a town there. We could take the dragonet there, and then it will hopefully stay as long as the prey is rich." Fili suggested as he put the sharp twig in a floppy skin he had set on the ground.

"Okay then. Did he mentioned where it was, or were you asleep during that part, too? I think I was practically unconscious when he started talking about territories, so I don't have a clue about what you're talking about." Kili asked him, a bit of humor in his voice.

"Yes. I think that from where we are, it'll take about a month or a month and a half to reach it. It should be south of here, as well." Fili told him, looking thoughtful.

"Then lets finish with breakfast, and get going. Hopefully, by the time we get there, the dragonet will be old enough to at least have a chance of surviving on it's own." Kili said, putting her down next to the pond and sitting down. "Toss me you're pack, will you. I think I put my _cram_ in there by accident last night." He asked Fili as he sat down.

Fili set down the large floppy skin on his back(which was called a pack, apparently), and found a smaller, tighter-looking pack in it. He looked at it in distaste. "Oh, yuck, Kili. You are my brother, and I love you, but I have and want no use for your _cram_." He said mournfully, tossing the smaller pack to Kili.

She could tell that whatever _cram_ was, it was not fun, but she was left to wonder about whatever a brother was. Kili opened the small pack, and began munching on a whitish slab of crumbly matter. He broke off a small piece, and sprinkled it into her mouth. The good news: she spat it out immediately. The bad news: she knew what _cram_ tasted like.

Both Fili and Kili laughed. "I seems that even a dragonet knows that _cram_ is unpleasant!" Fili chuckled. "Perhaps, try something not as foul, and that she can eat. She doesn't seem to have any teeth yet."

"All right then. I suppose that we should hunt later, and perhaps make some broth with some of the meat for her to have. I do like the sound of rabbit soup for dinner." Kili agreed.

 **Okay, so here is my re-post of chapter two; I polished it up a little more, so if some of you notice some differences, let me know if you like them.**

 **Be sure to REVIEW! REVIEW and RE-FAVORITE! Or just regular Favorite, if you're new to this fic.**


	3. What It Means To Kill

**dojoson41: Thanks! I'm glad you like it!**

 **Ro(whateveritisthatcomesnext): You're a coward. And you know perfectly well that you crossed the line. How about you stop posting insulting things and sending insulting emails, and actually go do something clever with your life?**

Fili and Kili sat and ate some _cram_ , Kili all the while telling her various things. It was in this way that she learned Fili and Kili were brothers as well as dwarves, and that an uncle was the brother of one's mother, and that, apparently, their uncle, Thorin, was a grump.

"Oh, dear. I do hope that you aren't getting attached to that thing. We aren't keeping her. You sound like mother when she is talking to her cats." Fili warned, a comical whine in his tone. He was beginning to put their things away in their bags.

"All right then. But she has to know _something_ about the world other than the fact that _cram_ is gross." Kili told him, standing up with her still in his arms. "So, almighty valley expert; where do we go next?"

"That way." Fili said, pointing towards a cluster of mountains that looked far off.

"Okay then. Let's start walking." Kili told him, and they set off, walking out of the clearing. She twisted her neck to look over Kili's shoulder at the clearing. She would miss that place, and she had only first laid eyes on it a few minutes ago.

The day went on, and they soon made their way out of the forest as midday approached. It was then that they came across a river that wound its way through a small plain that was dotted with trees and bushes.

Kili stopped abruptly. She looked up at him, and put a finger to his lip to tell her to be quiet. He set her down slowly and motioned for her to stay. He made several hand signals to Fili, and blond dwarf stalked off in the other direction. They sat there, waiting a while, and then she spotted Fili on the other side of the river, signaling to Kili.

Kili nodded, and slowly took two things off that had been attached to his back. One was a long, curved stick with a string going across either end of it, and the other was a short straight stick with a sharp stone on the end of it. The stone was unnaturally sharp, and it shone and glinted in the sun.

Kili then motioned for her to look at something, pointing at her and then to whatever he and Fili had taken such interest in. She looked, and saw a small, gray creature with long ears, whiskers, and a round, fluffy tail.

"That is prey," Kili whispered to her," you hunt it, and then you eat it. This is how Fili and I hunt, but you will be doing it differently. Pay attention to how we kill it, though. The messier the kill, the less food you get."

Kill. There was that word again. Kill. And she had a terrible feeling that she was about to find out what it meant. Fili had wanted to kill her. And she would run all the way back to the clearing just so she wouldn't have to find out what that meant.

Kili put the end of the shorter stick on the string, and pulled back slowly. He nodded, which was obviously a signal to Fili. Fili exploded out of his hiding place in the bushes, yelling. The prey ran, startled, and Kili released his grip on the short stick. The sharp stone struck the prey in the neck, and it collapsed.

She flinched as the creature made a horrible, short screech. It lay unmoving on the ground, and didn't seem to be breathing anymore. It didn't panic when Fili walked up to it an bent down to pick it up in a rather uncomfortable manner.

Fili picked it up by the back legs, and waded through the water to meet his brother. He handed the sharprock stick back to Kili, and held up the prey. "Well, you said you wanted rabbit, Kili. Looks like your wish has been granted." He declared.

The "rabbit" dangled in his grip as he held it up to admire the catch, and she felt a bit ill. It's eyes were dark and lightless. It wasn't alive anymore. _So that's what it means to kill._ And Fili had almost done that to her. She knew now how close she had come to sharing the rabbit's fate.

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	4. Stories and Bee Hives

**Whoops! I forgot to reply to reviews! So I'm re-posting this chapter, cuz I don't like to look like I forgot you all! I value readers very much.**

 **inari: Thanks to you, good sir!**

 **Reader-anonymous-writer: Yes this is a repost... but please refrain from putting spoilers in the reviews, please; there are some newcomers to this fic, and one thing I think all of us readers have in common, when it comes to books or fanfiction, is that we hate it when we see spoilers...because naturally, as humans, we cannot resist reading said spoilers. ^^**

 **DragonPancakes673: Glad you think so!^^ I love positive feedback!**

They went on until the sun began to set, and then Fili built a pile of logs surrounded by stones, and struck two stones together. She leaped backwards with a squeak of fright as bright orange smoke sprang from the logs. Kili chucked," It's only fire, little one. Do not be afraid. It will keep us all warm through the night; but don't touch it, or you will get burned, which would hurt very much."

A hollow boulder hung above the fire, filled with water, and Fili cut the prey into small strips and dumped it into the boulder. Kili started preparing the sleeping bags, and unrolled a small cloth for the dragonet to sleep under.

Soon, Fili poured the contents of the larger boulder into two smaller ones, and a third one that was about half the size of the other two. He gave her the smallest one, and when she looked in, there was a strange-smelling liquid with bits of rabbit floating in it. The scent made her mouth water, and she lapped it up greedily.

The two dwarves cast her amused looks as they drank their own rabbit liquid. When she had finished licking the inside of the boulder, she looked at them expectantly, hoping for more. "Sorry, dragonet," Fili told her, shrugging "It is already gone. We only had enough for a little bit."

They must have sensed her disappointment, because Kili quickly said, "But come here, and I'll tell you a story. Then you have to go to sleep."

 _Story? What's a story? And what's sleep?_ She walked over to him and curled up on the rag he had set out for her, and he began to speak.

"One day, long ago, there was a mighty dwarf kingdom known as Erebor. Erebor was located inside a mountain; the only mountain within a month's journey by horseback, in fact. So the mountain was called The Lonely Mountain. Now, in the mountain, there were special rocks, known as gems. Gems were the most beautiful kind of rock there was, and the other rocks that were plentiful in Erebor were gold and silver. They were shiny, and valuable, and with the gold, silver, and gems, Erebor became very wealthy; but the people also became very greedy. And greed can have dire consequences, especially when it involves gold, silver, and gems." He began.

"Kili, are you sure you should be telling her this? It might give her ideas." Fili warned.

"About what? Only an idiot would go near that mountain these days." Kili retorted.

She lent in closer. What had happened that was so terrible that Fili and Kili thought going near the mountain was a bad idea? She nudged Kili with her snout, urging him to go on.

"One day, the dwarves that looked for the gems and gold found the most beautiful gem of all. The king of Erebor named it The Arkenstone, calling it The Heart of the Mountain. Now, the king was obsessed with gold. A greed sickness had taken over him, and he spent most of his time looking at the gold that his people had collected." Kili continued.

"Now, that much gold attracts attention; unwanted attention at that. Now, one thing that dragons love more than anything else is gold. And one day, a wicked dragon named Smaug attacked the mountain, hoping to get his claws on the treasure inside. He tore the place apart, killing any who got in his way. But before he took the mountain, he attacked a city just outside of it, known as Dale. It was a city of men, and he burned it to the ground before destroying Erebor. That is why, young one, you should never have greed for gold and gems, and _never_ approach the Lonely Mountain, for a dragon like Smaug will kill you without even a second thought. And if there is one thing a dragon hates more than thieves, it's another dragon." He finished.

She shuddered, remembering the dead eyes of the rabbit. The dragon Kili had mention had done that to all those dwarves? He had just killed them, all to get a bunch of shiny rocks? Kili had taken the life of the rabbit so that they could eat; had Smaug even eaten the dwarves that he had killed? But she had the terrible feeling that he hadn't. _If you're going to kill something, at least make sure that whatever you killed died for a good reason, or at least helps sustain you. Shiny rocks do_ not _sound like a good reason to kill to me._

A sudden tiredness passed over her. She felt as if something was trying to escape from her mouth, and she let it out. "I had no idea that dragon could yawn! It seems to be something all living things must do." Fili chuckled.

The two dwarves got into their sleeping bags, and as darkness took her, she realized that this was what sleep was.

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~Massive timeskip~

*Breakdances*

Four weeks had passed since Kili had told the dragonet about Erebor. The mountains that were their destination now loomed above them, and there was no doubt in her mind that Fili and Kili would leave her soon to fend for herself. So far, they seemed to be hoping that she had forgotten their plan, or had been too young to understand it.

She and Kili were crouched behind a patch of bright green ferns, Kili with his bow drawn( The stick with the string, and the Sharprock stick was apparently called an arrow), and her crouching on all fours, watching intently.

The other day, they had witnessed a cougar hunting a rabbit. Kili and Fili had advised her to watch what it did, so that she could learn to hunt for herself. Right now, she was doing a crouch that she had seen the cougar doing before it had sprang and given chase to the rabbit. In front of them was clearing, at the end of which a large, pale sack hung off of a branch. It was a bee's nest.

A week earlier, they had happened across another one, and after shooting it down, Kili, Fili and herself had indulged themselves in the sweet, yellow liquid found on the inside of the nest, which was called honey.

Now, they were going to repeat the same technique they had used to get honey last time. She now played a part in their hunting strategy, as she was incredibly fast for her size and age; faster than the dwarves, at least.

Kili would shoot down the nest, and then she would run across the clearing and into a river that was close by. She wasn't full grown yet, by her scales were already resistant to the bee's stings. The bees would follow her while Fili cut open the nest with a knife to make it uninhabitable, and then when the bees finally left, they would feat on the honey inside.

"Ready?" Kili asked her.

"Ready." She told him.

Kili nodded in the direction that Fili was in, and then let the arrow loose. The nest fell to the ground, and chaos exploded. The dragonet burst out of the undergrowth, dashing across the clearing and towards the river. She could hear the bees buzzing behind her, and she felt one of them try to stab her in the tail with it's sting.

She could tell which way the river was now. She had practiced before they had gone after the nest. She knew that it was now safe for her to close her eyes while she ran. The bees couldn't penetrate her scales, but her eyes were fairly vulnerable.

She sensed the overhang in front of her, and jumped, cold water meeting her. She let herself sink, relaxing her muscles as Fili had told her to. This way, she ran out of air much slower, allowing for more hiding time from the bees.

Soon, the buzzing that she could here from under the water faded, and she paddled up for air. She swam over to the bank of the river, and lay there for a few moments to catch her breath. She was a good swimmer and runner, though Kili had told her it would be a year or two before she could fly.

Though one thought festered in the back of her mind, making her uneasy. According to Fili, most dragons could breathe fire. She had assumed that this was something her parents would have taught here, if she had been born in a nest with other eggs and a normal dragon family to look after her. But she had this other family, not at all normal. If two dwarf brothers and a female dragonet the size of a hare qualified as a family, at least.

But with no other dragons around, there was nobody to teach her how to breathe fire. _Except, there_ is _another dragon around, and he_ can _breathe fire._ She shuddered at the thought of Smaug. But deep inside, she knew that someday, perhaps not for many a year, but someday, she would have to face Smaug, even if it was only to learn the secret of fire-breathing.

' _A dragon like Smaug will kill you without a second thought. If there is one thing a dragon hates more than thieves, it's another dragon._ ' Kili's word echoed through her mind, and a thrill of terror went down her spine.

 _Well, I don't have to worry about Smaug for a long time!_ She knew that Fili and Kili were taking her somewhere far away; someplace safe, where Smaug( or anyone else, for that matter) could never find her.

Suddenly, she heard a rustle in the undergrowth. She lifted her head, expecting Fili or Kili, but then she recognized a different scent. It was strange, smelling a bit like the dwarves, but too different all the same.

Suspicion entering her mind, she backed up in the water, submerging herself until only her ears and snout went through the surface. Just as she finished, a tall figure walked out of the forest, and sat by the river to drink. They were like a dwarf, but much, much taller, with pointed ears.

Just then, Fili and Kili burst out of the undergrowth, looking triumphant. Their pride soon faded away as they saw the figure at the river bank. "Who the heck are you!?" Fili exclaimed rudely.

The new person turned to face them, looking more surprised at their rudeness than their poor stalking skills. "I'm a traveler, of course! And I am stopping for a drink, unless you find that at fault as well." The figure replied.

"Well, it would be wise for you to move on. There is tell of a beast in this part of the forest. Dragon-like, I hear, but unable to fly. They say it's a fast runner, so not even you are safe, elf." Kili told the traveler slyly.

 _Dirty trickster. That was clever._ She saw the boulders that blocked the "elf" partially from view. She could tell which way the sun was facing, and a plan began to form in her head. She swam slowly to a different part of the river to get a better look at the elf. He seemed to be unarmed. Which meant her plan would work. _Your trick was clever, Kili. But let's see if we can't make it just little more believable, eh?_

She swam to the boulders, clinging onto the side of the largest one by using both of the claws that branched off of her third wing joint. She arrived just in time to catch the rest of the elf's conversation with Fili and Kili. "…Do not believe in monsters. I suggest you go along your way, tricksters!" the elf had burst out.

 _We'll see who the trickster is when I'm done with you._ With that, she burst out in between two rocks, so that she couldn't be seen, but her shadow cast down large and mighty on the ground in front of the elf. She hissed (the only noise that she could make without sounding like a newborn hatchling) and reared up on her hind legs, clawing the air.

Fili and Kili ran away dramatically, screaming and yelling, "The beast is here! The beast is here! The beast of the forest is here!" and for a moment, the elf looked up to where the figure who was casting the shadow of the beast should have been logically standing, and turned heel and ran, scooping up his pack as he did so.

The dragonet lowered herself, and then leaped up to stand on top of the largest boulder, her wings spread in pride. "That'll teach you to mess with the beast of the forest" she yelled after the elf's departing figure. _Trickster indeed!_ She though. _Trickster indeed._

 **I knew I said I'd polish these up a little, and I will, but I just felt lazy today, so I just posted this one as is.**

 **I've posted an Agents of _S.H.I.E.L.D._ / _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ crossover, so if you like AoS or DS9 you should go check it out. I've put a Review Challenge in there for things most ridiculous, and I got a couple of hilarious lines, so I decided to post the same challenge in this fic, seeing as more people read _The Hobbit_ fics than random crossovers they found while browsing incoherently at three in the morning one day.**

 **Review Challenge: I challenge you to type in the most ridiculous thing you can think of into the review box. The best line will be used in the next chapter. It doesn't even need to make sense. Heck, it doesn't even have to be an actual sentence; just type something! Even if there are currently, like, twenty other chapters, still type something; I'm going to need a LOT of lines(for my crossover; but Elladan and Elrohir will border on insanity later in this fic so... .IT.). Please refrain from anything inappropriate, because lets face it, this is an adorable fic(most of the reviews in my previous post went on about how cute Arkean was), and some kid might read the reviews or something to see how good it is.**

 **It IS okay for you to put fart humor in, though, so feel free to let 'er rip.**

 **READ AND REVEIW MY LOVLIES; SHARE YOUR INNER 3-YEAR-OLD WITH THE WORLD!**


	5. Arkean

**Musicluver246: Thanks!**

 **Guest of March 7th: I am, and I seriously considered re-writing all five of these first chapters, but In the end, chapter two was the only one that receive any major updates. I did edit a little with this one, though, and the chapters after this one are seriously better than the ones I've posted so far. They're also a decent 2,000+ words each, so I dare say you won't be too terribly disappointed.**

It had been three days now since her first meat, and they were now walking through a ravine with two mountains on either side of it. They had spent the last three days struggling up the mountain, and they had nearly fallen off...twice. Since the night she had eaten the rat, the dragonet had taken to catching her own food, as well as Fili and Kili's. She enjoyed hunting.

But she was actually a little bit excited; she had heard Fili and Kili whispering the night before about giving her a name. But she was still terrified about being left behind, even though she knew it was for the better. _Fili and Kili know what they're doing. They're doing this to protect me, and I should be grateful. Besides, it's not goodbye forever; they'll still visit me... won't they?_

It was a question with an answer that she was both afraid of, and longing for. The two brothers weren't like parents at all; it was more as if they were _her_ siblings, although they weren't related. Which raised another question; where were her parents, if she had any, and what had happened to them? She had the most terrible feeling that it had to do with Smaug. And if she had had siblings, what had happened to them? She highly doubted that they had been lucky enough to have a duo of dwarves stumble upon them by accident, as had happened with her.

Whatever had happened, Fili and Kili where her family now, and she couldn't be more proud of having two such people as her friends. She purred, and bounded to catch up with the dwarves. "Well, at least somebody here is happy." Fili stated as she bounded up between them.

"Hey! We've been walking up this freaking mountain for three days straight! I'm surprised you're not complaining, Fili." Kili snapped grumpily.

"Come on now! We're almost there, we'll be done any day now!" she reassured him, nudhing his leg with her muzzle. Then, as she realized what she had said, she dashed off ahead of them, hoping they wouldn't guess that she knew why they were here.

 _That was close; too close!_ If they knew she knew, what would they do? Would they still let her go? And if they didn't, would they try to bring her to their home? And judgingfrom all the spite Kili told her dwarves had against dragons, she probably wouldn't last five seconds in the brothers' home.

She ran ahead some more to scout around, enjoying the wind in her scales. _If running feels this good, I can't imagine what flying feels like!_ Kili had told her that one day she would be able to fly, just like the birds did. She had never though much about her wings before that. They had been simply, to her, another pair of limbs, and that they were for helping her to climb and balance. She had never dreamed that they could be used for such a feet as flying. To take to the sky, with the wind running over her, and all the scents of the world let loose to her at once. That was what she thought flying would feel like.

"Hey! Get over here! We have to talk to you for a moment." she heard Kili yell behind her. They must have caught up while she was relishing the wind.

She hopped off of the rock she had been standing on while thinking about flying, and walked over to them, a sense of dread spreading across her. Had they found out? Or was this where they left her?

"Fili and I have been thinking... It's about time you had a name." Kili explained.

Her jaw dropped to the ground, excitement and terror running through her equally. A name! Finally, a name! But what if it was a bad one? What if people would laugh at her name? Or what if it was an ugly name? She tensed, staring at them wide-eyed, until Fili finally spoke.

"We've decided that your name will be Arkean. And when I say 'we', I mean mostly him, although I offered a few suggestions."

 _Arkean. Arkean! I love it!_ She ran excitedly, bounding around them and shouting her new name as loud as she could.

"Arkean! Arkean! My name is Arkean!"

"Okay, okay, settle down then, don't hurt yourself!" Fili warned, and she resigned to walking in between them, stiff-legged, stiff-tailed, and stiff-everything with purring.

Just then, the ravine opened up, and they now stood on a cliff face overlooking a beautiful valley. A river cut through the valley, and the trees were tall and green and fresh. A small part of the valley in the distant west of them was barren, seeming to be a large area made purely up of large, white boulders. A waterfall sprang from a mountain to their east, marking the beginning of the river, which ended at the far end of the valley in a small lake. Mountains surrounded the valley on all sides, and the ravine seemed to be the only way in and out. She could see why they thought it would be a safe place for her to live. It was well protected, and cut off from the rest of the world. If anybody came here, she would be able to see them coming from the ravine, unless there was a hidden entrance that they didn't know about.

"Well, lets get moving. I don't fancy sleeping on this ledge." Fili told them, leading the way through a narrow path that ran along the mountain.

It was more like a long cliff than a path, and there were several points where they had had to flatten themselves against the wall and step on their tip-toes in order to pass. This was especially hard for the newly-named Arkean, who had four paws and not two legs. She had to line up all of her paws and legs, hold her wings above her head, tuck in her tail, suck in her gut to make herself thinner, and drag her head across the wall in order to pass these hard spots.

They were soon down to the ground, and they walked a fair way away from the ravine entrance, until the sun began to set, and they made camp and ate. The dwarves were more quit than usual tonight, and she thought she could guess why; they were leaving tomorrow. They had brought her to the valley of the mountains, and they had had gotten her somewhere safe. There was no need for them to stay with her anymore. They had to return to their family, and their own kind, while she was destined to be here and alone forever. But it wasn't because they were mean; they had spared her life, the life of _her_ , of one who was the kind of the one that dwarves hated the most. She was a fire-breather, a man-killer, a child of cattle-burners and greedy hearts, Durin's Bane, the kind of ruiners of cities and slayers of knights. A dragon. A baby dragon, and they of all kinds of people had spared her life. They were good people; her very best friends in the whole world.

Would she try to follow them when they left? Yes. Oh yes, she would. But she knew she couldn't. She yawned, and as Fili poked at the fire absentmindedly, she asked Kili to tell her a story. She didn't hear most of it, because she fell asleep part way through it. And that was the last time she heard the voice of one of her only friends. And It would be a long time before she heard it again.

Arkean woke with a start. She air was cold, and her blanket was wrapped tightly around her. The work of one of the dwarves, most likely. _The dwarves!_

She scrambled to her paws, looking around frantically. There was nobody else there, and the only signs that they had made camp here were a bundle that seemed to have been accidentally left behind, the burnt out fire pit, and, of course, herself.

Horrified, she launched herself out of the blanket, and scrambled to the top of the nearest tree. Once at the top, she looked in all directions, breathing in large gasps, hoping above hope to see any sign of her friends. Then, finally, she saw them. On the cliff in front of the ravine, two figures stood, seeming to be looking out over the valley. Her thoughts race through her head, searching for a way to communicate with them; to say goodbye, to say that she was safe, to say all the things that she had ever spoken to them and never would.

Then, resolutely, she flared her wings in and out, remembering the way her scales glittered when the sun hit them. In and out she flared her wings, faster, slower, wider, longer, until, at last, she saw one, then both of the figures raise one hand, as if to say goodbye. She flared her wings one more time, holding them in place this time, at an angle that would make the sun reflect in the direction of the ravine. The figures lowered their hands, and slowly began to walk away and out of sight.

As soon as she saw them no more, Arkean, the dragonet spared by the dwarves Fili and Kili, the dragonet that had been born with such a loyalty to two individuals that had never been seen before, lifted her muzzle to the sky, and let out a horrible, grievous, mournful, roaring cry that echoed through the valley and beyond the mountains, to where hobbits dwelled, elves raced through the forest, men built their cities, dwarf lords mined in the mountain, and a dragon lay on his bed of gold. And all who heard it wondered, ' what creature could endure this pain without dying? '.

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 **Okay, don't ask me how or why, but it seems as if an entire paragraph disappeared while I was editing this thing a little. So, instead of getting about 100 new words, you get 100 missing words that I'm too impatient to replace right at this moment. I've been playing a game called _Destiny_ a lot recently, and I've developed a blazing passion for the fanfict I'm writing for it. The Game itself, well you either love it or you hate it, but I'm one of the people who love it.**

 **The fic is called _Fever_ if any of you are interested, and I've gone all out with the comedy with it. Speaking of comedy, I might be updating _All The Strange, Strange, Creatures_ soon as well; it's a prank vent. All this stuff leading up to April Fools, it's killing me, I can't even reveal my big prank yet...**

 **( hint hint; it's already been set in motion ;) )**

 **Review Challenge: Type in the best prank you've ever seen/done(don't worry; I can keep a secret). The best one might very well be featured by our favorite elf twins later in the fic.^^**

 **Cheers!^^**


	6. Dreams

**Sorry this took so long; I kept forgetting, I've become obsessed with my new Destiny fic.**

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Arkean stepped through the forest, her silvering scales glittering like diamonds in the summer sun. A whole year without Fili and Kili had taken its toll on her emotionally, but she had made new friends to make up for the absence of her big brothers. Ace, a gray fox, had been the first, and he had taught her more about hunting and surviving than Fili and Kili had been able to.

Then there was Estel, who had been exploring the life of a ranger when he found himself with a broken leg in the middle of the valley. Arkean and Ace had found him, and helped bring him back to health. He wasn't exactly a permanent resident, but did visit often, and had even brought back word from Kili and Fili once.

"They say they're about to go on a quest in a few months." He had told her as she drank in his every word." They said to tell you to keep an eye out for them, and that they'll try to sneak a visit if their path takes them near the mountain."

Of course, she knew the brother's plan was unlikely to succeed; it took three days at best to climb the mountain, and half a day more to scale the entrance. For now, she was planning to sneak out of the valley for a while to see if she could run into them. It was a slim chance, but it was better than none.

She spotted her prey, a large hare, and dropped to a crouch, remaining as still as possible. Hopefully it wouldn't spot her white scales among the bushes and ferns. It took a small hop forwards to get at a larger clump of grass, and Arkean leapt from the bushes. Her paws struck the ground where the hare had been, and she launched herself into a bounding run. The hare didn't get far from the wind dragon before being dispatched with a bite to the neck

 _It should take the edge off for Elezar's hunger._ As it had turned out, the valley hadn't been as unpopulated as the dwarf brothers had originally thought. Aside from Ace and herself, Elezar was the only other creature of intelligence that lived here. He was also a dragon. A very old dragon, who barely had any teeth left lift to bite with, claws as blunt as stones in a river, and wings that were ripped and torn beyond use, not to mention the fact he could no longer breath fire. When she had asked how old he was, all she had gotten was a lecture about how it was rude to ask people that question.

Other than that, she had learned a great deal about her own kind from him. Not just the bad stuff, but all the complex traditions and oaths that bound all dragon-kind. She had learned that her own species, the wind dragons, tended to travel in family groups, and that was why she had attached herself to Fili, Kili, himself, Ace, and Arathorn.

"You're meant to be with others. Loneliness is not in your nature. Abandoning you was a stupid decision on those dwarves' parts." He had told her.

Personally, she didn't think Fili and Kili were stupid. She thought Elezar was over exaggerating. Of course, since he had no teeth, he always sounded like he was exaggerating, for some reason. And since he was so old, it was up to Arkean and Ace to bring the elderly fire drake some food every once in a while. He had broken his foot last time he had hunted, during the winter, when he had gotten inpatient and decided to grab a few bison from the local herd. Other than that, older dragons could go a while without food, so he mostly spent his time sleeping.

Arkean saw him resting on the rocky grounds of the valley's far side as she came out of the trees and crested a hill. Elezar's gray-green wings were spread wide over the rocks as he relished the sun, and she could see his tail lash contently even from here.

She bounded down the hill, spreading her wings to lengthen her leaps. She still couldn't fly, but Elezar had assured her that she would be taking to the skies by the next time summer came around. Until then, she would make use of them in any other way possible.

It took her a while to reach the small, rocky slope that Elezar called home, as she had to stop to rest several times, but when she did reach it, she recognized the green-cloaked figure sitting near the dragon immediately.

"Estel!" she called out happily, dropping her hare in the process. She rushed to the young ranger. _Maybe he has news on Fili and Kili!_ She wondered excitedly. She skidded to a halt In front of him, and he crouched down to give her a hug (who couldn't adore such a dragonet?).

"I hope you didn't forget my lunch…" Elezar grumbled in his usual manner.

"It's right over there." Arkean told him, flicking her tail in the direction of the hare, her paws on Estel's lap.

The elderly drake stretched his neck outwards, and gave the hare a sniff before swallowing it whole. Arkean looked up at Estel expectantly.

"Any news on Fili and Kili?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not. I can't stay long; there's word of orc packs wandering the lands nearby, and I don't want them being able to track me back to here." He told her. Arkean tried to squash her disappointment. She had known the chances of Estel communicating with her brothers again were slim. Now, she was worried about orcs; what if Fili and Kili were attacked?

"But if they pass through here, what if they get found by the orcs?" she voiced her worries, taking her paws off his lap and kneading the ground nervously. This whole situation had just became unsettling to her.

"They said they would be with a lot of friends and relatives. They're trained warriors, Arkean; I'm sure they'll be fine." Estel reassured her with a smile. She felt a little better, but still doubtful.

"That hare tasted stringy." Elezar grouched, pushing himself up on his frail wings and making his way over to the river nearby.

"Perhaps it's because he ate it with the fur on." Estel commented, as he and Arkean went over to the ledge of the small plateau.

"He eats it with the fur on all the time. All of us do, me, him, and Ace." Arkean countered as he sat down, swinging his legs over the edge. His broken leg had healed some time ago, but every once in a while, she would see him limping.

"Yeah, well, to me, that's gross and unsanitary. And potentially deadly." He told her, barking a wry laugh.

"Well, _we_ think it tastes awesome! There's nothing compared to the taste of fresh prey!" she declared, licking her chops.

"You got that right!" A muffled voice agreed from behind her. She twisted her head around and shifted her wings to see Ace, who was coming towards them with a large raven gripped in his mouth.

"Plech." He said, spitting out feathers as he let the bird drop to the ground." I must say I hate feathers though. But hey; who am I to complain about plentiful food?"

"You're a piggy." Arkean answered. Elezar was always joking about 'Ace and his stuffed face.' The gray-furred fox was always eating, it seemed to them, but he burned off all the fat before he could even get plump. Pat of it had to do with playing with Arkean and hunting for Elezar all the time, and part of it was because all fox's were hyper active.

"Ha! Well, I guess you're right about that, though. Want to share?" he pushed the raven towards her.

"Mnnn hmm." She bent down and took a deep bite, almost eating the whole thing in one go.

"Who's the piggy now?" Ace teased as she chewed, looking down at the black bird regretfully.

"Look at the bright side." She said, swallowing," you won't have to exercise tonight."

Estel snickered, and the young fox sent the ranger a glare with his blazing amber eyes.

Arkean had trouble sleeping that night. Her mind was racing with thoughts about Kili and Fili, and all of the things that could and might happen to them during their difficult journey. She rubbed her snout against the brown cloth that she had wrapped around her lower left foreleg. It was a piece of the blanket that the dwarf brothers had left her wrapped in when they had left her here. After all this time, it still smelled of Kili.

She missed them. Kili, in particular. She still felt uncomfortable whenever she recalled old memories. Through them all, she remembered remembering that Fili had tried -or wanted- to kill her at some point, and that Kili had somehow guilt-tripped him into letting her live. Yet she missed the blond just as much as she missed his brother.

 _I hope I'll see you again soon._ She thought. _Wherever you guys are._ She shifted the position of her wings. Moonlight shone through the entrance to her cave, making the moss, grass, and other green things of her nest glow pale. Looking at her own scales, she could see the white, silvery light dancing along her body as she moved into a more comfortable position.

Laying so that she was stretched out on the ground, she looked at the pale, silver orb in the sky that hung large in the open mouth of her den, as if it was coming to block her in the cave forever. _I'll never get to sleep. I might as well practice my night hunting._

Standing up and stretching each individual limb, she shook the rest of the moss clinging to her scales and stepped out into the clear night. The wind had been whistling eerily into her den the whole night, but now that she was out in the open, Arkean felt a strange sense of completion as it rolled over her, bringing the forbidden scents and sounds of the night with it. She felt _alive_.

 _I suppose this feeling is always going to be here. I am a wind dragon after all._ Her sleeping cave always seemed off to her somehow, as had the nest she had made under the trees after arriving at the valley. Perhaps she could only sleep well when the wind touched her.

At that thought, tiredness exploded in her head. _Wind to help me sleep it is, then!_ Yawning, she curled back up, folding her wings so that they covered some of her back to help keep her warm. The only negative thing about wind was that it was often cold in places like this. Tucking her neck in and resting her head on her paws, Arkean drifted into sleep with the song of the mountains whistling in her ears. Only once did she nearly return to full consciousness, and that was when a howl split the air some distance away.

 _Dreams were out of contact with reality, but this was by far the strangest. Of course, as a dragonet, Arkean thought every dream was the strangest._

 _She stood on a frozen river that separated two halves of some kind of ruins. Looking around her, she saw dark clouds swirling above. And then she realized that they weren't clouds; they were_ bats _. Giant bats double the size of Arathorn, who towered over her in the first place. The river dropped into a frozen waterfall down a steep cliff face, which was connected to the only mountain she could see for miles. Far below, she could see a lake glimmering in the shadowed light._

 _Her breath caught in her throat as she realized where she was._ The Lonely Mountain _. If it wasn't Erebor, then she was a frog, because it matched Kili's description exactly. She looked around wildly, expecting Smaug the Terrible to jump out at any moment and blast her to pieces._ I'm not ready!

 _And then she realized there was something moving below the ice. Her panic temporarily replaced by curiosity, she leaned down to get a closer look, and nearly leapt back with surprise. But her paws were rooted to the ice, and she couldn't move, so she was forced to continue looking at the pale, scarred face that was hovering just below the surface._

 _And then its eyes snapped open, icey, cold blue, and it surged out of the ice, grabbing her by the throat. The lower half of its other arm had been replacing by a blade driven through its elbow._ _It raised its bladed arm to strike..._

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 **Guest(you know who you are): Okay, I get it; you like this fic. And I've already decided who's Arkean's parents; neither of them is Smaug.**

 **What do you guys think of Arkean at this point? Things are going to get real next chapter, though, just to warn those of you who didn't read the old post of this fic.**

 **Read and REVIEW!**

 **Cheers!^^**


	7. Death and Smoke

**So as to make up for the long wait last time, I hath posted this chapter within a week of the last one.**

 **Enjoy.**

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"Arkean! Arkean wake up! Arkean, we have to go, now!" Ace's voice jolted her back to reality, and her eyes snapped open, heart pounding.

The air felt strangely thick, and it stung her eyes the moment she opened them. How long had she been asleep? Dream time was shorter than real time. A golden-red glow was coming hazily from the valley below, and an acrid stench burned her nostrils, causing her to cough. _Fire!_

She jumped to her paws. The valley was on fire, blazing wildly as the wind she so cherished whipped up the flames and embers, spreading the destruction swiftly and cruelly. How had this happened? Had she slept through a dry lightning strike? She looked down at her chest, expecting to see a gaping wound from where the creature had struck, but finding only her smooth, plate-like chest scales, undamaged and reflecting the red light that bathed the forests below.

"We're downwind of the fire, the smoke is going to kill us if we don't get to the cliff path." Ace urged, wild fear in his amber gaze.

"Kill _you_ , you mean. I'm a dragon, smoke doesn't hurt me." She corrected.

"You're still too young, just like how Elezar is too old. He's gotten out with Estel and Xayla; it's my responsibility to make sure you get to safety." He snapped, fur bristling. Xayla was his mate, who was one month pregnant with his cubs.

"Okay, but how do we get to the path without getting roasted, genius?" she challenged.

"Follow me, and stick close! Grab my tail if you have to, we can't get separated." He ordered, bounding down the rocks. Arkean followed, spreading her wings and managing to glide down most of the way. It felt awesome to be so close to flying, but the hot updrafts that kept her afloat were less than pleasant.

She could hear loud howls and baying in the distance, and she recognized them from earlier. _If only I hadn't fallen asleep, we could be at the path right now!_ She thought as she landed sloppily next to Ace. The heat could be felt even more down here, even though they were still in a rocky area of the valley. The forest ahead had yet to catch fire, but the roar of the flames beyond could be heard.

"Hurry!" Ace called, rushing forwards. Arkean bounded after him, wings open to lengthen her steps. Her and Ace were about the same size, but he was still faster than her.

The air grew thicker as they ran, and soon they were running among smoldering leaves as they fell from their branches, and the grass stung her paws as if she were running on a million embers. Ace leapt back and veered to the side as a flaming branch crashed down in front of them. Arkean jumped to a halt to avoid running into the flames, and then changed course.

The smoke was getting thicker as they ran, and burning leaves and embers lashed at her face. Her eyes watered, her nose stung, and her lungs ached for fresh air. She stumbled, coughing. Everything was a haze in front of her.

"Ace!" she called out blindly, her voice hoarse. She broke into another fit of coughs. At first she thought that the gray fox was gone, until his voice came from in front of her.

"Grab my tail! Keep going!" She sensed something furry in front of her, and she took it in her mouth. "Just try not to rip it off, you hear? I'm gonna need it later."

The fox and dragonet started running again, Ace just a hazy gray blob in front of her. It was getting harder to breath by the second, between Ace's thick fur in her mouth and the smoke that invaded her chest as she ran.

"We're almost there!" it seemed like they had been running for too long. She thought her lungs would burst.

Ace came to a sudden stop, and Arkean fell to her knees, coughing and hacking. She could feel her breath rattling in her chest. Ace came up to her, looking her in the eyes, the amber orbs reflecting the flames that had chased them.

"Arkean, we _can_ do this, just trust me." He was interrupted by a series of racking coughs. He sounded older than he was." Just a little farther and we'll soon be safe. You have to hold out until then."

Arkean swallowed a cough, and nodded. Ace helped her to her paws, and they continued towards the wall of rock ahead of them. She could hear the roaring flames behind them as the forest became fully engulfed, but under that she thought she could still hear the wild howls from before.

"Come on, you first." He urged as they came to the entrance of the path. She thought about the thin parts of the trail, and how hard they had been for her a year ago. She was over twice that size now. She looked back at Ace doubtfully.

"Don't worry; I'll be right behind you." He reassured with a vulpine grin.

She stepped onto the path, and they began to run up it as far as the width would allow. Then the hard part began. Still coughing, though the wind had shifted, they stared sidling along the ultra-thin part of the trail. Holding back a cough that was rising in her throat, Arkean made her way across, making herself as flat as she could and hardly daring to breath. She had been down this path only once before, but had never climbed back up.

They were halfway across now, and the baying down below caught her attention. She dared to look down the drop that could kill her, and saw a pack of wolves larger than any she had ever seen, with what had to be orcs riding on their backs. Estel had said that orcs sometimes rode large wolves called wargs.

And then the cough she had been holding in escaped as she pressed herself to the stone yet again. And then she felt teeth grab her wing and pull her back, and she say the blur of gray fur in the corner of her eye. And she screamed as Ace lost his balance and was sent flying down the side of the cliff.

Time didn't exist for her. His thick, envy-worthy gray fur blew majestically in the wind as he fell, and the light of the fire made him seem like he was one of the valar. There was an almost-peaceful smile on his muzzle, as if to say, ' _It's all right. I'm okay with this. You'll be fine, just carry on._ ' She watched with horror as the fire engulfed him.

 _Have to keep going. Can't let him die in vain._ But her legs wouldn't move. She felt frozen to the rocky pathway, her limbs refusing to move. Ace was her friend. He was the first to find her after Fili and Kili had left her. It was him who had offered comfort to her, and helped her survive the long, winter months. It was him and her who had nursed Estel back to health, and mended his broken leg. And now he was dead, because he had tried to save her. He was dead because she had coughed.

She somehow managed to put one paw in front of the other, and found herself on the ledge that marked the path's beginning as the blackened sky above started to turn lighter. She was blank the entire time, soundless save the coughs that racked her body. She felt cold, distant, as if reality didn't exist. She collapsed on her knees at the top of the ledge, smoke rising behind her, her scales blackened with soot and pockmarked with cuts and burns from flying leaves and embers. There had been only one thought in her head the entire climb up.

 _He's dead because of me._

She started to cry, her tears leaving streaks on her face as they washed soot off.

"Kili…Fili… Help… I don't know what to do." She cried silently, her voice hoarse from the smoke. Nobody answered her. She needed a shoulder to cry on… and she was all alone.

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Kili wasn't sure what woke him up that night. All he knew was that he had a sudden urge to go. Somewhere anywhere, he had to leave. In his gut, he knew something was happening, but what?

Sitting up, restless, he looked around the camp they had set. Bofur was on watch right now, and everybody else was sleeping peacefully…Well, except for him. _Perhaps a walk will clear my head._ However, as he got up, Fili stirred beside him.

"Kili? What's wrong?" he asked, obviously sensing his brother's restlessness.

"I just need a walk." He hesitated." Does something feel… _wrong_ to you? " he questioned.

"Now that you mention it, yes. I wonder why?" Fili said, looking a little confused.

The two brothers walked some distance away from camp, trying to divine the meaning of this odd feeling. Kili felt as if he were being pulled by some invisible force, an urgent need to go to the east. As they came out of the thick part of the forest, they saw the eastern route they would be taking the next day. It would be unfamiliar to the other dwarves, but Kili and Fili remembered this path well; they had taken it almost exactly a year ago, when they had spared and aided a newly-hatched dragonet that Kili had named Arkean.

"Cuz when she's in the sunlight, she kind of reminds me of that tapestry of the Arkenstone." He had said.

In the beginning, Fili had had his reservations about Arkean, but in time had become almost as attached to her as Kili, who had fallen in love with the tiny creature almost instantly(Kili had inherited their mother's fierce love for small, cute animals).

They knew that the path that the company would be taking would lead them right by the valley they had left Arkean in, and when they had been approached three months ago by a ranger claiming to be friends with her, they had pounded him with questions of every sort. As it turned out, the valley hadn't been as dragoness as they had originally thought; some toothless old fire drake had been living there for some time, and the ranger, named Strider, had assured them that Arkean was in good hands( or rather, wings).

They had thanked Strider many times over before sending him off with a message for their little dragon friend; that they would have the chance to see her soon. Exactly how they were going to visit Arkean and get beck before Thorin noticed they were missing was beyond them, but the prospect of seeing her again, especially after Strider's visit, had been an excited though running rampant in their head for months now.

But as they looked to the starlit sky, Kili saw something that made his gut twist. Dark smoke was rising into the air above the mountains where the valley was, as if they had turned into volcanoes. There was a scent of burning wood in the air as the wind shifted and blew towards them. He knew it wasn't their fault, but Kili wondered what had possessed them to leave Arkean in _that_ valley. _What have we done?_

* * *

 **I'm mean to characters.**

 **Guest: Yes, I did. And please don't post blank reviews.**

 **I'm sad because I finished Destiny. Well, I finished all the stuff I can do without Live Gold membership. I can't afford those kinds of payments at this moment. But, anyway, now I'm stuck waiting for the September DLC to come out. That gives me plenty of time to decide if I even _want_ to help Prince Jerkface. But, I suppose I kind of want to know what happens to him in canon before I reach that point in the _Fever_ universe...Or do I? Personally, I'd be perfectly happy if Uldren got blown up or lost forever. **

**He's a real jerk; or, as my mother put it: a turd. *everyone giggles***

 **Question of the Day: Don't you just love that moment when the one grown-up in the room says "poop" and everyone laughs their butts off?**

 **Read and REVIEW!**

 **Cheers!^^**


	8. Elladan

**And here we are, with chapter eight! I plan on re-posting the rest of my original chapters before the school year ends, and then you're all going to have to sit tight and be brave, because neither Amberstar nor I update during vacations; including Summer Vacation. We do this for your own good; seeing as school allows little time for writing, we write during vacations, and then post over the school year so that we can spend less time writing and appeasing you guys, and more time studying.**

 **Of course, _Fever_ is the exception; I just HAD to get that idea out of my head before I went mad!**

 **Transformers' BABY:*twirls* Here you go!**

Arkean felt as though she were swimming in a haze. It was as if the air and wind had become thick, gooey mud around her, and she couldn't breathe or think. _Ace is dead. He's dead because of me. It's all my fault. If I hadn't fallen asleep, he wouldn't have had to come and get me. He would be alive. It's all my fault. It's all my fault._

 _I should just die._

Something pricked at her face. _It has to have been a dream. I'll wake up, and it will have all been a nightmare. It can't be reality. It can't be my fault. It can't have happened. It isn't real._ She broke into more dream sobs. _It can't be real!_

Something hit her face, harder this time, under her eye. She broke form her hazy nightmare sleep and opened her crusted eyes. Staring her right in the eye was a crow. She leapt back, swiping her claws at it, and more crows rose from around her, flapping into the sky.

"I'm not dead!" She hissed, cracking her voice and causing a fit of coughs. _Or am I?_ Nothing seemed real to her anymore.

But she supposed that his wasn't heaven, seeing as every inch of her hurt, and she could feel her breath bubbling in her chest and throat, causing more and more coughs. She looked around herself, and saw that soot had fallen fresh on all the rocks and stone around her. Coughing, she walked over to the Cliffside and dared to look down. The valley was ruined, blackened and destroyed beyond recognition. She thought she could see the place her sleeping cave was at from here, but she didn't want to look.

She scanned the area below for any sign that Ace might still be alive. If he was, then she could get him up the path and everything would be fine again. But she saw no sign of the gray fox, not even a scorched corpse.

Growing sadder and sadder by the moment, Arkean turned her back on the valley that she had called home for most of her life. Her only hope for a home now was to find Fili and Kili when they passed through the area, or to find Elezar and Estel.

She felt her stomach drop at the thought of Xayla. _What am I going to tell her?_ Probably the truth; that Arkean had killed her mate. That her cubs would grow up without a father. Last night's horror gripped her again at the thought of Ace's fatherless unborn children. _Fatherless because of me._

Arkean wished her parentless existence on no-one, and now Xayla had to raise who-knows-how-many children by herself. She wished she could just curl up under a rock and die. But no, here she was, with the curse of living on while a dear friend died. Shutting her eyes tight, she took several deep breathes, trying not to cough.

When she opened them again, she looked at the path ahead; a path she hadn't seen in a year and could hardly remember. But as she went, the landmarks became more and more familiar, and she began to reminisce about her days as a hatchling, bounding along after the two dwarf brothers that had taken her in when she was alone, and cared for her whereas she would be unwanted by anyone else.

Then the thoughts were banished by her later memories, of her and Ace playing in the fields, him revealing Elezar to her for the first time, the way the love struck fox would look at his mate when they had yet to go through their joining ceremony, how Xayla and her would laugh together at his antics, the way she and him had helped Estel, the days they had all spent rough-housing in the snow… Things that Fili and Kili had never done for her, because they never came back for her.

 _They left me here. They left me here for this to happen, and now my friend is dead. Ace would still be alive if they had never brought me here._ She could feel her heart turning cold as stone towards the brothers she had adored her whole life; the brothers that were never around.

 _It was all a lie. They never cared for me. Everything Estel told me; that must have been a lie, too. There is no journey. If they really had cared, they would have come back. I wonder if Estel even met them? Did he just tell me those things to make me feel better?_ She halted, staggering back in shock as realization dawned on her.

 _Ace would still be alive if I had never been born. He would still be alive if Fili and Kili had never found me._ She threw her wings over her head, fresh sobs shaking her body. She wanted Elezar back. He was the only one she knew who wasn't lying to her. He didn't know Fili and Kili, he always spoke bluntly, and truthfully, and he was the only other dragon she knew. Estel, Fili, and Kili had all lied to her, and Elezar was the only one she could trust. Only another dragon was worthy of her true friendship.

Or were they? What if it had all been a trick? A trick of the mind? What if Ace, Elezar, Estel, and Xayla had all been part of her imagination, created so that she wouldn't be alone? _Then I can bring them back with my mind, too! Maybe that's why Fili and Kili didn't come back. Maybe they never existed for real, either. But if they didn't exist, then who took me to the valley? Maybe the valley didn't exist!_

Lifting her head, she clawed at the stone. It _felt_ real. But perhaps she had put herself in this trick reality for so long, she would always believe it was real. _Then leaving as fast as I can is the best way to cure me!_

Leaping to her paws, new determination flowing through her veins, Arkean ran like she had never run before. She kept her wings to her sides this time, determined to keep herself awake by making the journey as hard as possible. _If it hurts, the pain will keep me awake._ She thought as her burnt scales and sore muscles screamed.

Jaw set, she knew she had to leave her pretend reality behind her. If she focused on what had to be done, then perhaps she would wake up. Or maybe she was in some sort of coma…back in her nest, where her parents lived. The thought of that possibility made her heart soar. If she could wake up, she could be with her family again. Her _real_ family. No Fili, no Kili, no Estel, no lies; just her and her parents, and her real brothers, and her sisters as well.

So lost in thought was she, that Arkean failed to notice the drop in front of her, and by the time she burst out of the path, it was too late. The ground fell out from beneath her paws, and then she was falling, falling, falling like Ace her imaginary fox friend. And then the rocks met her scales, and she was tumbling down the mountain side, her world spinning and pain smarting all over her body.

When she finally stopped falling –or _had_ she?- her left hind leg hurt like it had been ripped off or mauled. She sat there and cried for a long time before easing herself to her paws, only to slip and fall again, lightning bolts of pain rocketing up her leg and all over her body. She struck out with her good paws, her sight blinded by pain and tears, and managed to stop herself from going any farther by digging her claws into the ground.

She tried not to wince or cry any more than she already was, as one of her claws tor and another split down the middle. The scent of blood filled the air around here, and she knew it was her own. She tried to take a deep breath to calm herself, but it only hurt, and came out as yet another sob. Why were all these things happening to her? What had she done to deserve all of this?

Just then, she heard a low moan that didn't belong to her. Fighting through the pain, she pricked her ears. There was a harsh, struggled breathing coming from behind some nearby boulders. Looking around, she saw that the blood wasn't just her own; it was all over the mountain side, staining the rocks red and black. Some bodies belonged to elves, which she recognized from one of her earlier memories, and some belonged… some belonged to strange creatures that looked just like the one in her nightmare, and there were impossibly large wolves among the dead.

 _Wargs! So the not-elves must be orcs…_ the struggled breathing continued, and she looked at the rocks doubtfully. In one paw, there could be a nasty orc behind there; and in the other, a wounded elf in need of help. Either way, this was a fantasy world, so it didn't really matter if she died. _But is this a fantasy?_

She hurt so much, and as far as she knew, you couldn't get hurt by figments of your imagination. So if she left now, she might be leaving someone to die. A struggled choke that nobody, imaginary or not, could ignore, made up Arkean's mind for her. Limping around the boulders, pain ringing through her with every step, she came to see who it was.

It was, indeed, an elf. He was wearing battle armor, and a sword lay nearby. A quiver of arrows was strapped to his back along with a bow. A dead warg lay nearby with an arrow in it's head, but it looked as if the beast had gotten in at least one blow before getting killed, as Arkean spotted the source of the elf's suffering. His battle armor was crushed in on his chest, as if the warg had caught him around the torso and thrown him to the side before dying.

Arkean approach, still hesitant. What if this elf didn't like her? Would he still have enough strength to battle after a night of struggled breathing? His eyes filled with fear as she came up to him. She set a paw on his shoulder.

"Don't worry. I promise I'm nice. I won't hurt you. Just, please don't hurt me either." She said, feeling her own voice claw at her throat.

Inspecting him, she looked for and sort of straps that held his armor to his body. If she could cut the straps, he would be free, and then she would have to get as far away as possible before he recovered enough to fight. She didn't trust anybody, or anything. Using her teeth to tear the quiver off, she found the straps. Catching her claws on the leather, she pulled, earning a horrid gasp from the elf, before the material gave way as she gave a final tug with her teeth.

The elf took a massive gasp of breath, gulping in air as if it were water after a lifetime of thirst and dry deserts. Arkean watched him as he ripped the metal outer armor off as if it were on fire, so that he could lay, gasping for air, in his leather and chain-mail under-armor. Confident her work was done, Arkean turned away and started to pick her way down the mountain once more.

Pain sung, hot and bright, with each step. She suspected that her ribs were hurt in some way, perhaps even broken. She _knew_ that her left hind leg was broken. Upon twisting around to inspect it, she could see bone poking through the lower part of her leg, midway between her ankle and her knee. Blood ran down her soot-and-mud-covered scales, and she suspected that the only clean place on her was where the tear streaks had washed away the grime from her face.

She had gotten what she liked to think of as some distance away from her initial landing point, when a call rang through the air.

"Wait! Stop!"

She turned around to see the elf from before, skidding and picking his way down towards her swiftly and elegantly. Panic surged up inside of her; what if he was going to trick her? Or hurt her? Or worse; kill her?

She started to limp faster, slipping a little and jarring her bad leg and sore body painfully. How could she have been so stupid? She should have hidden rather than run away!

"Stop, stop! Wait, please, just stop! I don't want to hurt you!" his voice called from closer behind. _Yeah right, you don't want to hurt me! Fili and Kili told me what you did after Smaug attacked…_ on second thought, who care what her foster brothers had said, they were never around anyway. They probably weren't even real.

She whirled around, her leg and sides throbbing, to face the elf, fear pulsing through every fiber of her being. He descended from the last of the rocks, staggering a little as he landed. He was breathing hard, and his hand went to his side as if he had a stitch. His other hand, he held out non-threateningly. His eyes looked at her softly but suspiciously.

"Why did you help me?" he demanded.

"Why wouldn't I? Elezar says it's rude to not offer help to people who need it." She answered, shifting her weight to her good paws.

"You're hurt." He observe, eyes flashing with pity." Why is a baby dragon running around out here without her parents? Is your mother or the rest of your brood close by?" he looked a little self-worried when he asked that particular question, glancing from side to side nervously.

"No. I think they're dead. I'm not sad, though; I never knew them, so I don't have to miss them." And that was the biggest lie she had ever told in her entire life. _Where are you?_ She thought desperately every night, wondering if her family had even loved her in the first place. If there had been more than one egg in her brood, after all, who would care if one went missing?

"I highly doubt that." The elf said, as if he had read her mind. She had never _met_ and elf before, so who's to say that they couldn't?"What happened to you, anyway?"

"There's- there _was_ a valley on the other side of this mountain. A bunch of wargs came last night, and the forest burned. I got out, but my friend died—" she had to cut herself short to avoid saying "because of me." She didn't want this stranger to know she had killed her friend.

"And then?" he inquired, moving a little closer. To her own surprise, she didn't back away.

"And the _what_ , exactly?" the tipped her head to one side. _You've gotta be more specific than that, elf!_

"How'd that happen to your leg?" he specified, waving a hand at the wounded appendage.

"Oh. That." She shifted her weight again, not meeting his gaze." I fell. A lot."

"I got bitten. A lot." He said with a grin that she couldn't loath." Looks like we've got something in common."

"I guess so. Are you gonna leave now?" she asked. For some reason, she felt reluctant to ask that question.

The elf came right up to her, looking into her purple-blue eyes with his silvery gray ones. He put his hand to her cheek, wiping some of the soot and grime off of her neck. _Loneliness is not in your nature._ Elezar's words echoed in her mind. She needed a pack, a flock to call home. She leaned into the elf's hand, the touch of another living being filling up the void that had made her world make no sense. _Yes. This is reality. And I have to live with it._ Tear watered in her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

"My name's Elladan. Do you have a name?" he asked.

"Arkean." She answered.

"Would you mind coming with me, Arkean? It's a bit of a walk back home, and I don't like to travel by myself." Arkean shook her head. She didn't mind coming with Elladan at all. In fact, the longer they stayed together, the better. She felt strangely sane now that she was with another intelligent being.

To her surprise, the silver-eyed elf went to her side and scooped her up in his arms like she was a slightly oversized puppy dog. She let out a squeak of surprise, and winced as her bruised, possibly broken wings were folded forcefully by his grip. She felt another memory floating to the surface of her mind; the last person to carry her like this had been Estel, and only after her many requests for a ride had driven him crazy. She couldn't' help but giggle.

"Something amuse you, lady dragon?" Elladan puffed.

"Just thinking of a friend." She said." Have you ever heard of a ranger named Estel? He came to the valley all the time, he was loads of fun. He and Ace taught me how to track a bison! In a snowstorm!"

If she had been looking at Elladan's face, she would have seen shock written clearly across it. But she was looking at the land ahead, wondering what direction they would be heading in, too busy in the mind to wonder why Elladan paused for so long before taking those first steps forwards.

But soon they were off, and Arkean was fast asleep in Elladan's arms by the time two certain dwarf brothers reached the place where the elf and dragonet had set off together from. However, though she had found slight peace with reality, her dreams offered no escape from the pain that reality had wrought upon her.

* * *

 **Arkean's shattered mental state: Check. Semi-cure of said mental state: Check. One our favorite elves: Checka-mundo.**

 **You know, when I first wrote this chapter, I had only just found out that Elladan and Elrohir existed. Naturally, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to include a pair of trouble-making twins in a fanfiction.**

 **Speaking of fanfiction, I've almost finished my very first one! Not the first one I've ever posted, but the first fanfiction I've ever finished! That's right; _F_ _ever_ only has three-to-four chapters left in it, and then it'll be done! If your play Destiny, hope that Prince Uldren will rot on Mars forever and ever, and want to see him suffer in the most ridiculous ways possible...go read _Fever_. It's the fanfiction where I vent all my immaturity into before it gets spewed up all over my more serious fics.**

 **And immaturity is fun, right? It's, like, that moment when the teacher says "poop" and everybody in the room giggles uncontrollably.**

 **What do you guys think of Arkean so far? On a scale of one to ten, how cute does she rate so far? Do I need to up the cuteness, or tone it down a little? Any suggestions for pranks that our favorite twins could pull?**

 **Guest(you STILL know who you are): Okay, I get; you like this fic. A LOT. You've urged me on quit enough, now, thank you; please stop. I don't mind you reviewing, and I don't mean to offend you or anything, but you're kind of starting to annoy me. Just _please_ , refrain from posting more than one review per chapter.**

 **And to those _literally_ hundreds of you who have read this fic and actually like it, please READ and REVIEW!**

 **Cheers!^^**


	9. Rivendell

"So, your foster brothers are _dwarves_?" Elladan exclaimed, shaking his head with disbelief."And I thought I had seen it all!"

"Yeah, but it turns out they didn't really like me. They never came back for me."She told him sadly. Her sides, her leg, her wings –everything, in fact- felt hot and swollen, even her snout.

"Well, how long did you wait for them?"

"A year. Estel brought news back from them once, but now I think he just said that to make me feel better."

"I highly doubt that."

"How would _you_ know? You've never met any of them!" Elladan felt another dark feeling creep along his spine. How could his little brother know about this creature and not tell him or Elrohir? Or their father, Elrond? But what if Elrond did know? The thought of his twin brother spurred him on. He had been _so_ afraid that he would never see Elrohir or their father ever again, and at first, Arkean's face looming out of the haze of his oxygen deprivation had just about terrified him to death.

And then a dirt-cover dragonet had been walking away from him as he tore off his bad armor, leaving her own blood on the ground in her wake. He had figured that since she had saved his life, he might as well return the favor; looking at her now, there was little doubt in Elladan's mind that she would likely have died last night if she had stayed in the wild. He wasn't as good as Elrond, but he had done his best to mend her, creating a makeshift splint from some brambles and sticks. It was pokey and kept catching on his shirt as he carried her, but it was better than nothing.

"You gotta work on not using that accusatory ' _you'_. It's very rude." He pointed out good-naturedly.

"Ha! Now you sound like my friend, Elezar! Except he's so old, he hasn't got a tooth left in his mouth! Well, that's what he says about himself, anyway." She giggled.

"Oi! I'm not old!" the elf squawked indignantly. Arkean laughed hard, causing her to go into a fit of coughing that brought a frown to Elladan's face. _She need's dad's healing skills, and soon._

He had met her just a day ago, and already he felt remarkably attached to the little grime-covered dragonet that had saved his life. _I wonder if she's a wind dragon, then? They've been known to attach themselves to people when they're separated from their pack._

He could already see the familiar forest that surrounded Imladris, and he felt a feeling of contentment as he finally stepped under the trees an hour later. As an elf, he had quite a lot of stamina, endurance, and strength. But what with spending a whole night in crushed battle armor, and carrying Arkean for the better part of the last day and a half, Elladan felt like he could drop asleep right here right now. He would probably be closing his eyes as well, he was so exhausted.

Adjusting his grip, he strode through the forest, familiar sounds and summer smells reaching out to him. His home wasn't far now.

"So, this is that special place you mentioned? The one where you live?" Arkean asked.

"Yup. It's hidden from everyone but those who know how to find it. And even if it is found, there's a special magic that protects us from all evil.

"Oh. That sounds nice. I wish my valley had had something like that." the dragonet yawned, quivering. He wouldn't delve too deeply into Rivendell's enchantments.

For the first time, Elladan wondered how he would explain this creature to his father, and the rest of Rivendell's inhabitants as well. He forced down a shutter, not wanting to think about the scolding he might get for bringing a dragon into Imladris. He paused in his walking to listen, his heartbeat quickening as his elven ears picked up the noise of the ravine river his people made their home in. He ran towards it, earning a few bumpy squeaks of protest from Arkean.

"Why-" she coughed" are-we-run-ning?" she asked, voice distorted by the up-and-down motion.

"We're almost there!" he told her excitedly. He ground to a halt as they burst out of the trees and into the open space surrounding the bridge to Rivendell's town. The sunset bathed his home in a golden light, and the white marble looked as spectacular as ever. He found himself appreciating the beauty of this place more than ever, after thinking he would never see it again.

"Ooooo! That's nice-looking! Are those buildings? I've never seen buildings before." Arkean said wondrously.

"Indeed they are!" he told her happily. He could see a few figures in the courtyard at the other end of the bridge, and he recognized them immediately. It was Elrohir! And Elrond!

He scrambled down the ridge and ran across the bridge, excitement pulsing through him.

" _Ada_! Elrohir!" he shouted happily, and the two solemn elves jerked their heads up, their faces lighting up at the sight of him.

"Elladan!" Elrohir rushed towards him, grinning broadly and eyes glinting. "You bee-brain!"

"What is _that_!" Elrond's hand came out of nowhere, holding Elrohir back. His severe eyes seemed to spear through Elladan and his charge, and he felt Arkean shift uncomfterbly in his grip.

Elrohir did a double take as he finally noticed what his brother was carying.

"It's Arkean. She's the one that helped me." he explained, shifting from one foot to the other. Elrond's glare did not relent.

"I'm nice, I promise!" the dragonet piped, her voice ragged and high-pitched. The few simple words sent her into another caughing fit.

"You idiot!" Elrond roared, his glare now directed strictly at Elladan."Where there is a child, there is an angry mother sure to come!"

"But I don't hav-" Arkean began, but Elrond cut her off, continuing his rage-filled repremandation.

"She will follow that dragonet's cries to Rivendell, and think that it was us who injured it!" his eyes were practically popping out of his head with anger.

"But I don-"

"Did you even consider for one moment what you were doing? What in the world were you thinking, Elladan? Or where you thinking at all?" he shouted. Elladan felt like he was shrinking in his skin. He and Elrohir had been chewed out plenty of times for their pranks, but the scoldings were always worse when they actually did something wrong.

"You take that think back where you found it, _now_!" he finished, spit flying out of his mouth.

"But I don't _have_ a mum!" Arkean shouted before he could finish the sentence, voice raised so as to be hear over Elrond's yelling. It was her turn to shrink, all eyes falling on her as she broke into another fit of violent coughing.

"It's true, she doesn't have anybody." Elladan told his father, desperate for him to believe him. "She needs your skills. Please?"

The older elf's gaze remained sharp, studying the sooty dragonet in his son's arms. Elrohir looked from their father, to Elladan, to the dragonet, surprise and curiosity clashing on his features.

"Very well. Take her to the Healing Halls." His lips twitched by and infinite amount, making it clear that he was still peeved at him. Elladan felt a rush of satisfaction, and the note of worry in his gut loosened.

"And you wait there as well." His father told him turning towards the stairs that led up from the courtyard. He looked back at his son once more before leaving." I would like to here the most interesting story behind this."

Elrohir came up to stand next to his brother as they watched their father's departing form. Elladan gave a small jump of surprise as his brother punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?" he yelped.

"For worrying me sick! Where were you all night? We sent search parties back to the battlefield, and you were not there!" Elrohir told him, voice laced with relief and worry.

"That is because I had already been found." he explained, nodding to Arkean.

"Can I hold her?" Elrohir asked, as if he had just remembered the dragonet was there.

"What are you asking _him_ for?" the dragonet protested.

"It's alright, Elrohir's fine. Besides; my arms hurt." Elladan told her cheerily, passing the dragonet off to his brother.

"Whoa." Elrohir said, as Arkean fidgeted in his arms ahpressivly. He grinned up at Elladan. _"_ _Melui_!"

Elladan smiled back, flexing his tired, sore shoulders. "Indeed."

"So, what exactly happened out there?" he asked as they began to walk to the Healing Halls.

Elladan recounted the long night before last, where he had lain on the ground in his crushed armor, waiting for death. He told Elrohir all about the battle, how the orc ambush had come out of nowhere, the air smelling of smoke and death, soot raining down from the mountains.

Last of all, but certainly not least of all, he told his brother about Arkean, looming up out of the rocks and saving his life, before limping away with a trail of blood behind her. Elrohir shook his head as Elladan concluded his tale, sitting on the bed across from him in the Healing Halls.

"I am glad you are safe, brother." he told him sincerely. Arkean had fallen asleep in his arms on the way up, and her paws twitched as she dreamed. Elrohir looked down at her.

"She's adorable." he commented.

"Indeed she is." Elladan answered. It was true; and she'd be even cuter when she wasn't covering in blood and ash.

"So...What are we going to do with her?" his twin asked hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" surely Elrohir wasn't suggesting they deny shelter to the dragonet?

"I'm just saying, what if ada doesn't want her here? What will we do?" he pressed.

The knot in Elladan's stomach tightened. Elrohir was right; maybe Elrond wouldn't let the dragonet stay in Imladris, even without the danger of a ferocious mother dragon trashing the valley.

"We could get him to like her." He suggested.

"How? She's a _dragon_ , Dan. I just mentioned them the other day and he snapped at me, remember?" his brother countered. "Besides, he would kill us if she got anywhere _near_ Arwen." In a flash, Elladan remembered what Arkean had said about Estel. Their adopted brother knew about the dragonet already.

"Estel knows her." He blurted. Elrohir blinked at him, gawking stupidly.

"What?" was all he said.

"Just earlier, she mentioned a ranger named Estel, sometimes calling himself Strider." He explained.

"That little-!" his twin tried to say, though he seemed to flustered to speak properly at the moment. "That little- -little- _troll-breath_! He _knew_ about a baby dragon, and he _didn't tell us_?!"

"Yup. We're going to have to get him back." He joked.

"We don't have any secrets, Dan." his copy told him.

"Well, we've got a sister he know nothing about, Ro. By extension, _he_ has a sister he knows nothing about." He tipped his head to the side, thinking randomly." Boy, that'll be a little creepy if they meet and fall in love. Arwen'd be our sister, and our adoptive sister-in-law."

"Well, that's hardly leverage! She's meant to be a secret!" Elrohir exclaimed loudly. Elladan shushed him, pointing at Arkean.

"Perhaps when Estel returns, we will have a little chat with him, yes. But first, we need to get him to convince ada that Arkean is alright." he told him.

"You assume that I would not let her stay?" came a voice from the doorway. The twins turned their heads to grin at their father sheepishly as he entered the room. He held a jar of ointment, and several wet cloths.

"Yes. We do." Elladan told him. Elrohir looked at him exasparatedly.

"What's all this " _we_ " stuff, brother? I only just met her!" he claimed, though he looked down at the dragonet fondly as he did so.

"I would not turn away a child that had nowhere else to go." Elrond told them, setting down his burden on the bed, sitting down next to Elrohir. Elladan felt refleif flow through him, and Elrohir bore a similar look." As for Estel, I will have a talk with him about his secret."

" Yes, ada. Thank you." he told his father. He meant every word of it. The half-elf nodded, his severe eyebrows soft.

"Hand her to me, Elrohir." The twin nodded, and carefully transfered the dragonet to his father, trying not to wake her.

"She is in good hands. Elladan, you should go get cleaned up. Go get some rest, the both of you." Elrond told his sons. They got up, and Elladan felt as little lighter in the heart as he looked back before walking out of the Healing Halls to see his father carefully removeing the bramble splint he had made earlier that morening.

 _Arkean will be fine._ he told himself. He followed his brother, exhausten weighing him down. But already, mischevious plans were forming in both of the twins' minds.

Oh, the things they could do with a dragon on their side!

* * *

 **MUAHAHA! The twins has a dragon; look out, Mordor, you're in danger, too!**

 **Any ideas for pranks the Twins could pull? Funny conversations? Sayings?**

 **And while you're at it, go check out _Fever_ , the very first fic I've EVER finished! It's for Destiny. Basically...**

 **What do you get when you take a constantly-terrified Warlock, a Hunter with no self-control whatsoever, and an arrogant awoken Prince who hates pretty much everyone?**

 **Pure chaos. The insanity is off the charts with this one. I think you're all entitled to a quote...my favorite one...so beautiful...**

 **"""**

"Whoa, whoa; five days!? Are you kidding me? Why the heck do we only have five days! We can't save known civilization in five days!" Martin suddenly went off, practically screaming, grabbing Silverhawk by the shoulders and shaking her before gripping his hair with his hands, as if he were considering pulling it out. "It's impossible! Literally impossible! We're all going to die horribly painful deaths because _this is impossible_! What the heck was Cayde thinking? What the heck are _we_ thinking? Why are we here!? What's with the universe!? _WHAT IS LIFE_!?"

Silverhawk grabbed him by the shoulders turning him to face her, as Variks and Uldren stared at him. To their surprise, she slapped him across the face.

"Wha-!?" he gawked like a fish out of water, staring at her.

 ***cue Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves main theme***

"Dude, cool it!" she said as she slapped him. As he gawked at her, she spoke again, fiercely. "Are you Guardian or not?"

"What?" he said stupidly. She slapped him again.

"Are you a Guardian or not?" she asked again.

"Y-yes!" Martin stuttered. She slapped him again.

"What!? What the heck was that fo-" she slapped him again.

"Are you a nerd, Guardian?! Are you a mad-man mad scientist?" she demanded.

"What? No!" she slapped him again.

"Say it!" she demanded, shaking him.

"Say what?" she slapped him again.

"Say it! 'I'm a mad-man with a Ghost. I'm a mad-man and I'm proud.'"

"I'm a mad-man with a Ghost…?" she slapped him again.

"WITH CONVICTION! 'I'M A MAD-MAN AND I'M PROUD!'"

"I'm a mad-man and I'm proud." she slapped him again.

"I'M A MAD-MAN AND I'M PROUD! " he yelled.

"That's it!" Silverhawk shook him again as the Warlock became more vehement.

"I'MA MAD-MAN AND I'M PROUD! I'M A MAD-MAN AND I'M PROUD!" he continued to chant, as Silverhawk cheered him on and began chanting on her own.

"CRAZY PEOPLE RULE! CRAZY PEOPLE RULE! CRAZY PEOPLE RULE! CRAZY PEOPLE RULE!" she screeched. The two Guardians were now jumping around each other, screaming in each other's faces, and cheering more and more loudly as Martin began to join in Silverhawk's "crazy people'' cheer.

Uldren simply stared, as Variks began to edge out of the room awkwardly. He cast the Prince a glance that could have meant "I pity you, you've met with a terrible fate, haven't you? ". But Uldren was so shocked that he didn't notice. He was still gawking at the two Guardians' display. Their Ghosts were doing nothing to stop it, only hovering out of the line of fire of their Guardians' limbs.

 _They're idiots. They're complete and total idiots. I can't_ believe _this!_

"YES!' Silverhawk finally ended their cheer. "Now let's get out there, and KICK. SOME. BUTT!"

"YEEAAAAAAAAAAH!" Martin screeched. The two Guardians spun on their heels towards the entrance, where Uldren was standing. Casting each other a glance, they both raised their right arms as if they were wielding swords, and charged. Uldren jumped out of the way as they screeched;

"TOOO DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATH!"

He stared after them as they disappeared into the rapidly dispersing crowd, running in the direction of the docking ports, their Ghosts zooming after them.

 _We…are all going to die._

**"""**

 **XD**

 **Now that I've cured the feels you've been put through with Arkean and her situation...At least, I hope I made up for it. And I hope ya'll thought it was funny, because I'm in a "humor insanity" mode right now. I've ingested too much caffeine, and have lost the ability to be entirely serious about anything. And please, keep rude comments about not knowing who or what Destiny, Uldren, Variks, or the Ghosts are. Just look it up on le internet or something; I don't feel like explaining myself to every rude review I get. like I said, I just CANNOT be serious right now; I would laugh my butt off at the death scene of Vis-I SHALL NOT GIVE SPOILERS!**

 **Cheers!^^**


	10. Missing the Heartless

Arkean woke to the light of the sun bursting and flowing through the room. It pierced her eyelids and turned her darkness red-white as she slowly slipped into consciousness. Her slumber had been dreamless, broken by lightning bolts of panic and fear and sorrow in which she saw Ace fall into fire over and over and over again, as if time were stuck in a loop at that moment.

Worse still was the look on the fox's face as he fell; glaring at her, screaming at her, blaming her for his death.

She peeled open her eyes with a groan. Her head pounded at the brightness of everything, and she tried to cover her face with her paw, groaning. _Why couldn't I have slept some more?_ Her eyes snapped open once more as she registered the texture of her paw.

It was burnt-looking, of course, and there were numerous cuts on it. The claws were blunted and burnt, and the ones that had been split or twisted had been pulled out entirely, she notice with a flash of panic surging through her. There was also a strange-smelling substance, perhaps some kind of ointment, coating the burnt areas.

She looked around, suddenly realizing that she wasn't in her sleeping cave, and that Elladan was nowhere to be found. _Where am I? Where's Elladan? Did he leave me behind in some, strange, place?_

Then she remembered what had happened yesterday; or presumably yesterday, if she hadn't slept for three days straight or something. They had arrived in Rivendell, Elladan's home, and she had met his brother, Elrohir, and a really cranky elf with attack eyebrows…

She looked around at her surroundings. It was a wide, long hall, with barely any walls and a ceiling held up by pillars on one side. There were large, rectangular, soft-looking things lined up along the wall opposite to the pillars, each of them raised up by wooden posts. The wall itself was barely a wall at all, with large, wide windows placed at regular intervals.

Trees grew thick outside past the pillars, and, she guessed, the windows as well, causing beams of sunlight to dance through the whole room as the wind blew. The warm, fresh scents of summer gushed and lowed through the hall like a river, clashing with the artificial designs of the building.

Her neck stung as she moved it, and there was a sudden tinge in her side. Twisting her head around painfully, she saw that many white straps were wrapped around her torso, and skillfully so, as to not chafe her wing membrane. Similar straps wound around her injured hind leg as well, and there was a stiff lump along the length of it that was keeping her leg from moving.

Her left wing now sported a strange contraption indeed;long, soft white sticks had been teid up along the edge of each edge bone, their forms curving slightly to fit along the bone comfortably. Her heart skipped a beat when she notice _how_ the sticks had been tied on; there were small holed punctured in her wing membrane, just behind the leading edge of her wing. Delicate-looking wire had been strung through them, wrapping around the sticks and keeping them in place.

 _By the wind! What have they done to me!_ These holes would keep her from flying! Forever! With a whineing sob, she buried her muzzle in her paws. _Why! Why do things keep hapenning to me? Why did the elves ruin my wing?_

Did they put the holes there on purpose? To keep her from ever flying? The elf with the attack eyebrows had been very angry at Elladan for bringing her with him. What was more, he had seemed to think she was dangerous; that her mother would come and destroy the village in the ravine. Had that elf done this to her wing? To keep her from flying and wrecking havok from above one day, if she ever had dragonets of her own?

Which begged the question; if so, were they planning on stealing her children? And for what reason? _Certainly not to...to_ kill _them, right? Elladan would never let that happen!_

Or would he?

What if her was in on it? What if everything that had happened since her fall from the mountain had been staged? What if-

"Hello Arky!" the doors burst open, apparently kicked by the two identical elves that extravegantly announced their presence in the loudest way possible. Arkean jumped, shocked out of her shock and speculation.

"Rise and shine!" the other twin added. They rushed into the room, and one of them(Elladan. Wait, no; it was Elrohir, wasn't it?) charged at the raised, rectangular things. He vaulted over one dramatically, but failed to stick the landing, his foot slipping.

He fell to the ground, halfway sliding under the nest rectangle over and smacking his head against the egde of the one he had jumped over. The other twin, halting in front of Arkean, looked back at his brother, wincing slightly.

"I'm O-kay!" the fallen elf claimed, his hand peeking over the rectangle to give them a thumbs-up. His head popped up next, grinning widely despite having had half his brains knocked out just now.

"Very elegant. I keep telling you you're going to kill yourself oneday." the twin near Arkean (she was _absolutely certain_ that he was Elrohir. But... he looked much more like Elladan)adressed his twin.

"And I keep telling _you_ , brother," Elrohir(or was it Elladan?) shot back, jumping to his feet with a bit of a stumble, "that it is a vital combat skill and it will save my life one day."

"Or most likely end it early, resulting from one among a number of serious head wounds you have received and will receive whilst practicing this skill." Elladan(or was it Elrohir?) responed, rolling his eyes.

"I'll have you know, perfect I am speaking, therefore, head is my fine." Elrohir(or was it Elladan? Seriously!) said poitedly, nearly tripping over the edge of the rectangle as he walked around it to get to them.

"Yeah. I can tell." Elladan(or Elrohir?) said wryly, before turning to Arkean, grinning.

"Greetings, oh great serpent of Rivendell! We come to thee in you time of need," the twin on the left announced extravagantly, both of them bowing deeply at the same time,"to offer you the finest entertainment this side of Bree!"

They came out of their bow, and the twin on the right spoke next."How are you feeling?"

"About my body, or about being called 'Arky'?" she asked. It was an odd sound, and it didn't taste right on her tongue. Or maybe it was less becasue of the word, and more becasue of the face that when she talked, it felt like a porcupine was being dragged out of her throat, leaving an ashy, horrible taste in her mouth.

The twins winced at the sound of her voice, one of them scrunching up his face in a "that sounds like 'ouch'" kind of expression.

"Yes. And what's being wrong about being called 'Arky', Arky?" one twin said, shrugging with a mischievous grin working it's way up his face.

"Well, for the first thing, I feel _terrible_ ; I smell weird, and I'm covered in goop, and there are these weird straps all over me, and look what they did to my wing!" She held up he appendage, wailing."I'll never be able to fly now because it's full of holes!"

"Naw! Don't worry!" the other twin declared cheerfully."Those holes are so small, they'll heal way before you're old enough to fly!"

"Well, _he_ thinks." the other one put in, jerking a thumb at his twin."We actually have no idea how old you are. Or when dragons learn how to fly."

This did nothing to ease Arkean's worries. In fact, a few new worries wormed their way into her muddled brain. What if they were wrong? What if she was supposed to have flown a long time ago? What if the holes would be there forever and ever? And how would they get rid of the wires? What if-

"Anyway, yeah, so you're a little scratched up, burnt, and broken, but hey, otherwise you feel okay, then?" the twin on the right asked eagerly.

"Well...I deffinabl-ty _don't_ feel alright about being called 'Arky'" she said, scrunching up her snout."It sounds so stupid and dragonet-ish. And when I'm all grown up, all the other dragons will think that I'm weird or something. 'Behold, the great and terrifying Arky! Fear her and beware her territory or whatever!'That doesn't sound very good."

"Well, I think it's cute, and thus very suitable for you." the twin on the left proclaimed with a business-like final nod. Arkean narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out if he was Elladan or not. She looked from one to the other, frowning. _Ugh, by the wind! This is impossible!_ Giving up she broke in before either of them could speak again.

"Uhhh, sorry...but...exactly which one of you is which?" she asked.

The twin on the left gave a small jerk backwards, clutching his heart with his hand dramatically.

"Why, young lady! I am truly shocked! It's obvious, isn't it?" he gasped.

"No."

"Well, it's quite easy to tell us apart, actually; I'm the unbearably handsome one, and he's the one with the mole."

"Oi! It is not a mole! It's a beauty mark! And since when are you unbearably handsome?"

"Since I have a girlfriend, you do not. And it is so totally a mole. Basis on _ada_ 's medical opinion."

"You went on one date with Ithril and she qualifies as your girlfriend!? And if I remember correctly, that date ended with her slapping you!And ada has never said anything about my m-beauty mark!"

"Wrong. It ended with a romantic kiss. And we're _so_ on for tomorrow night, as well. And face it, it is a mole, you nearly admitted it yourself."

"Did not!

Arkean looked between the two of them, beginning to get confused. She still couldn't see any difference between them.

"Well, whatever. And if that's not enough for you, Arkean; I'm thirty minutes older than he is." the twin on the left added. The one on the right gave him an indignant look.

"Are not!" he countered.

"Are too!"

"Are not!

"Are _too_!

"Are _not_!"

"Enough! Elladan is older, and Elrohir, it _is_ a mole. Now leave before you give my patient an aneurysm!" boomed a voice from the doorway. Everyone's heads snapped around to see the cranky elf that had confronted her and Elladan previously.

"Attack eyebrows..." she whispered with realization. One of the twins snickered, and his brother seemed to be exercising barley-hidden control of his laughter.

"You heard what I said! Out!" the elf ordered, eyebrows twitching at Arkean's remark.

"But, _ada_! We're here to entertain her!" the left twin(who was apparently Elladan) told the new elf. Elrohir nodded vigorously.

"Yeah! Being bedridden _thostos_." he insisted. "She needs some form of stimulation via idiotic antics, or else she'll go completely brain dead."

"Aneurysm's maybe not so bad, if it's funny." Arkean nodded, voice cracking and coughs raking her body. _I don't want Elladan to leave! Elrohir's not too bad either. I don't want to be alone with attack eyebrows!_

Attack eyebrows gave her a severe look(or did he always look like that, because of his eyebrows?), and then gave the twins an even more severe look(if that were possible).

"You can 'entertain' Arkean later. For now, she needs to have her bandages changed, and at very least a bath, and plenty of rest. Dragons heal quickly, but young ones not as much." he told them. "Go, make sure the patrols are set, Elrohir. Elladan-"

"I'm perfectly fine, _ada_!" Elladan quickly insisted. Eyebrows's glare became more intense as he continued.

"-Elladan you will stay here and rest. And if you are so desperate to be around your dragon friend," eyebrows continued, his tone becoming more reprimanding, "You can help bathe her... as punishment for that trick you pulled last night."

"I have no regrets." the twin said solemnly.

"What trick? Was it a funny trick, or a mean trick? Cuz Estel pulled a trick on me once, and I didn't think it was very funny, but everybody else did, cuz they were all laughing-" she was broken off by a fit of coughing, but managed to continue before they could interrupt,"-and even Elezar thought it was funny, but _I_ didn't see why it was funny, cuz I was covered in old bird feathers, and everything was all sticky, and it was a big old waste of honey that _I_ could have been _eating,_ _right_ at that _moment_ , but _no_ , I was _covered in it_ instead."

The elves looked at her oddly, and the twins exchanged glances. Elrohir made an odd, high-pitched whistle-like sound, looking impressed.

"Wow. Our Estel, pranking a dragon." he said. Arkean felt like something had slammed into her. _Elladan and Elrohir_ know _Estel!?_

"What!" she exclaimed, pain shooting through her as she flared her wings, disbelief charging through her. "You guys know Estel? Why didn't you tell me?"

The twins shifted their feet, looking slightly guilty, Elladan more so. Attack eyebrows... well, she was pretty sure that the look on his face should have made the twins burst into flames right now.

"Well, uh, Arkean, you see..." Elladan stuttered nervously.

"We, uh, well _he_ didn't-" Elrohir jerked a thumb in Elladan's direction.

"I thought, uh, maybe we should, uh, let Estel know first? About you, being here in Rivendell. And, um, if he never told you about us, then, uh..." Elladan trailed off. Both twins looked thoroughly embarrassed and guilty. Arkean folded her wings in, anger simmering through her as the shock faded out. _They lied to me! Again! More people lying to me,_ again _!_

"Any more shocking revele-tee-ons I should know about? No Smaug hiding under this rectan-gely thing? No weird spells I should know about? No plot to steal any eggs or anything? No ultra-weird third cousin I should avoid?" she demanded, her tail lashing painfully. She had no idea if Smaug the Terrible could fit under the rectangley thing, and she had only heard Estel mention ultra-weird third cousins once(goodness knows what those were), and she really had never experienced anything having to do with magic; but she wasn't taking any chances. If it could happen, she wanted to know about it.

"Uhhh...not that we're aware of." Elrohir said, eyebrows creased at the question.

"Well, _good_!" she shouted, wings flaring painfully again. "Cuz I hate being lied to."

"I can assure you," Eyebrows assured her stiffly, shooting a dangerous look at the twins, "that any information kept from you was so by accident. There is no-one here that will bring you harm."

Arkean tucked in her neck, resting her head on her paws with a huff. She winced as more pain shot through both her paws at the action, and she wondered if she would ever be able to do anything without feeling pain ever again. _How many more times will I be lied to before my life goes back to normal?_

"Elladan, Elrohir, you may take your leave. And please, do as you're told." Eyebrows ordered, exhaustion laced through his voice as he told the twins to behave. Arkean's head tipped. Did Elladan and his brother have problems with obeying attack eyebrows?

"Yes, _ada_." The twins chorused, rolling their eyes simultaneously. Looking disappointed, they left Arkean for the doors. Elladan looked back once with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry, Arkean." He said, before going around the corner. Eyebrows' eyes were on them the whole time, as if to make sure that they actually left. All of the sudden, she was all alone with the cranky, perpetually glaring elf.

She re-settled her wings in a way so that they wouldn't hurt so much, and curled her tail around her haunches, her tongue flicking in and out of her mouth nervously. She hadn't had much experience with meeting strangers before; things just usually happened. Now, this didn't mean she was _completely_ uneducated in politeness; Elezar had taught her how to greet other dragons, what to say when they left her company, how to read a few certain tail movements, and a few other things.

Mostly he had just taught her how to be courteous to elderly people.

The elf approached her, his face seeming to gentle somewhat; as gentle such a grumpy-looking face _could_ look, anyway. She pricked the fabric of the rectangle with one claw, wondering what to say. She hadn't really greeted Elladan, or Elrohir. She hadn't even greeted Estel when she met him! How did on greet a total stranger? What tone did one use for an occasion such as this?

 _Well, I'm probably going sound really bad no matter what tone I use._ She thought forlornly. A new thought hit her, suddenly; what if her voice sounded like this for the rest of her life? Would she ever be able to properly talk to anyone ever again? Would she never hear her own voice again, ever?

Before she could further worry about this particular thought, the elf had reached her, and was bending down, removing something from under her rectangle.

"So…how fairs the sky?" she asked nervously, uncertainty bolting through her like the herd of startled bison that Elezar, driven by hunger, had attacked last winter. It was a traditional dragon greeting, the one that Elezar had taught her. Would this elf even know what it meant?

He looked up at her curiously, vicious eyebrows raised in an almost innocent manner that reminded her, somehow, of Elladan. He considered her, looking thoughtful.

"It…fairs well." He answered slowly, almost as if he were uncertain about exactly _how_ to answer. "It was quite bleak the last few days. But, it has cleared since the last sundown."

"Oh, no!" Arkean said hastily, flicking her wings. "I wasn't talking about the _actual_ sky. I was just saying hello. Elezar says that it's how you say 'hi' to people you don't know."

The elf placed a soft bundle on the rectangle next to Arkean, blinking.

"Ahh." he said, nodding slightly."I wondered as much. Until now, I had yet to meet a dragon who engaged in common courtesy."

"Oh. You mean they tried to eat you?" she asked, looking at her forepaws awkwardly.

"No." he said, setting a sort of jar next to the bundle. Arkean looked at him, surprised, and he looked at her, an unreadable expression on his face."I had yet to meet any dragon, in general."

"Oh." she said, looking down at her paws again, as the elf continued setting things on top of the rectangle. She pricked at the fabric of brown cloth that was tied around her ankle with one claw. After everything that had happened, she was surprised it was still there. _Should I even be wearing this anymore?_ Kili and Fili had never come back for her, and it was pretty clear to her that they had probably never intended to come back. Should she really still care for them after all that? Was it right to miss someone who really didn't miss you in the slightest?

She rubbed her paw against it. She _did_ still miss them, she realized. She missed them so much. As the memories of her very first month of life faded away from her mind, her memories of Kili and Fili faded with them.

But the memories she could catch hold of, were special and joyous in every single way. She wouldn't give them away for anything, even to have Ace back. She set her muzzle down, pressing it against the cloth. It was tainted by fire and ashes, and the combined stenches of fire, and the blood that had crusted within her nostrils, covered almost every scent she should have been able to make out. The scent of Kili could no longer be found on the blanket strip.

 _That doesn't matter to me anymore. Kili and Fili gave it to me, when they left, and that's what matters._ She closed her eyes, trying to summon up an image of the dwarf brothers; a memory, a scent, a touch, a voice, anything, really. Eventually, came the memory of two dwarfs, one with black hair, the other with yellow, splashing river water at each other playfully, until a tiny white dragonet leapt in between them, squealing, and soaking both of them with the resulting splash.

Arkean couldn't help but smile. Maybe Kili and Fili did abandon her. Maybe they hadn't cared about her like she had believed for all of forever. But for that one month, the month she had trouble remembering... they had been a family. They had been happy; or, at least, she had been.

 _That's what matters... no matter what._

* * *

 **This AWESOME double update brought to you by; the fact that I actual finished a fanfiction! If you want EPIC amounts of hilarity(and the occasional feels, as if you don't get enough feels from Arkean), go check out _Fever_ , the unequivocal masterpiece of my profile, the manifestation of every ounce of insanity and immaturity I posses!**

 **Man, teh feels! I've been dealing with too many feels-y stuff recently; _Fever_ , _this_ , the piece I've been writing for the future of the _Fever_ "Dysfunctional Fireteam" universe. That, and the keyboard I'm using right now has a horrible, sticky spacebar so I apologize of any space misplacement in this Author's note. I'll be sure to write a lot more for this fic over summer, please don't freak out or anything; I'll have a lot more updates up my sleeve after school begins again.**

 **I'm off to go feed my _Destiny_ obsession.**

 **SPOILERS!**

 **Vision dies in Captain America: Civil War! O_O IT EXPLAINS HOW THANOS GETS THE STONE AT LEAST WHHHHHAAAAAAAAAWHY'DHEGETINTHEWAY!**

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 **XD*snickers***

 **I'm a cruel, unusual person.**

 **Snape kills Dumbledore.**

 **CHEERS^^**


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